The Reaper's Soul
by Storm VII
Summary: After being summoned to this world by the Grand Witch Queen, Ragna is transformed into an infant and taken as a prisoner of the witches. After spending a hellish year by himself he finds himself found by two outsiders of the world, Sol Badguy and his wife Aria. Join Ragna as he learns to live in Death City and the DWMA.
1. The Reaper's Rebirth

_Rebirth_

" _Joma Joma Dabarasa, Joma Joma Dabarasa, Joma Joma Dabarasa, Joma Joma Dabarasa!"_

The group of women continued their chant as they stood around the giant arcane circle, the dark purple light it was giving off slightly illuminating the pitch black dungeon they were in. The longer they chanted, the more the symbol at the center grew. From one end of the dungeon their leader, the Grand Witch Queen, took over the chant.

" _Arise Dark One, Arise! Heed Our Call And Bring Your Strength To This World! We Call Upon You To Smite Death And Bring Ruin To Our Foes! By The Ancient Magics We Summon You! Joma Joma Dabrasa! Joma Joma Dabarasa!"_

The glow at the center of the room grew and dark blots of lightning flashed. The witches continued their chant, speeding up as the power grew.

" _Joma Joma Dabarasa! Joma Joma Darbarasa! Joma Joma Darbarsa! Joma Joma Darbarasa! JomaJomaDabarasaJomaJomaDabarasa!JomaJomaDabarasJomaJomaDabara-!_ "

A giant surge of darkness erupted from the center of the sigil, the magic gave off enough force to knock most of the witches off of their feet. A demonic roar erupted from the center as the sigil gave off a massive black flame.

"AT LAST!" the Grand Witch Queen shouted as she remained standing. "AT LAST WE HAVE SUCCEEDED! AT LAST WE WILL HAVE THE VENGEANCE WE HAVE SOUGHT FOR MILLENNIA!"

It was then that the flame abruptly died and the sigil disappeared completely, leaving the circle of witches in the darkness of their ritual dungeon with black smoke pouring over the room, leaving a massive cloud in the center.

"What has happened!?" one witch demanded. "Has the summoning failed!?"

"It very well may have…" the witch queen spoke. "Our kind has been attempting to summon the Dark One since the very creation of the term witches. A failure in our ritual is not uncommon, but take pride my daughters… this is the closest any witch has ever gotten."

"It might've succeeded if Medusa wasn't so stuck up," another witch commented. "If she'd even been present for the summoning we may have succeeded, but instead she simply kept to herself and her pathetic experiments."

"You cannot fault her for following her path," the Queen spoke wisely. "She will come to assist us when the time is right, but until then…" she paused for a moment. "There is a presence, coming from the center of the sigil."

"Probably just leftover magic," a third witch said. "With a summoning that intense, it's not uncommon."

"No… I sense life…" Then tension was high in the room, had the summoning actually succeeded? "Squalus, find out what it is."

A middle aged witch with deep blue hair, sharp serrated teeth, and a dress that mimicked that of a mako shark stepped into the smoke nodded as she walked into the center of the circle. The witches watch with anticipation as they saw her shadow kneel for a moment before standing, seeming to pick something off of the ground. When she walked back from the clouds, she carried a bundle of clothing; a red coat and a black hamaka. Slowly, the witch undid the hamaka revealing the head of…

"A baby…?" the witch queen spoke. Indeed it was a child, a newborn with streaks of silver hair and eyes trapped tight. The witches all glanced at each other in disbelief as the child was handed to the queen who looked over the child.

"We attempted to summon the Dark One, but in the end all we summon is some stupid brat…" Squalusa groaned in annoyance. "I don't know what's screwing with us, but that kid's meaningless, he'd be better off as food for our pets."

"Do not be hasty," the queen spoke as she observed the child. "This one does have a darkness in it, one that is very deep." As the witch undid the hamaka, the child's arm caught her eye. "What in the name of all that is arcane is that?"

The child's arm seemed to be dark in design, and was wrapped by several black straps. It was as tiny his other arm, but considering how pale the rest of the body was it was quite the clash of colors. There also appeared to be a tiny black tattoo on his chest.

"Odd... " the witch said before placing a hand upon the child's head. Using an ancient ability called _Mind Read_ , she was able to see what the child was seeing. Dissolving memories of a first person view flashed by almost quicker than she could see and she was only able to vaguely make out what was being said with the boy's conscious rapidly being destroyed.

' _Brother…'_ A young blonde boy and girl in white clothing. ' _Promise me you won't fight…'_ A red haired nun. ' _You're not gonna die from that, your arm's toast though!_ ' A monster _. 'You stuck the Azure Grimoire to your arm kid…'_ A cat something. ' _Stalking you? I think not._ ' A young woman with blond tails. ' _Nii-San!'_ the same blond boy, now grown and seeking blood. Her next image was a Samurai, clad completely in white and wielding a large sword as he addressed the man in front of him.

' _I will end you here. You do not belong in this world, Dark One…'_

"This IS him," the Queen noted aloud to her followers as she stopped the spell. "He's been addressed as the Dark One in his past… Our ritual was not perfect, but we have summoned him."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Squalus grunted. "Wait for this little brat to grow up!? Death has Death-Scythes and Meisters slaughtering us by the week and you want to put our faith in something that can't even walk let alone fight!?"

"Harvesting evil souls in order to create a Kishin will still be our utmost priority, but this child must remain alive if he is to accomplish his destiny… Squalus, you will take him back to your cove since it is the most protected as of right now. Keep him there until he is of his sixteenth age."

"Are you serious?" Squalus asked in outrage. "I'm not raising this brat! He's just a dumb waste of time for the entire council! You failed the summoning! You failed-!"

"Enough!" the witch queen shouted with authority. Squalus went silent in a heartbeat, though she wouldn't agree with the queen, she knew her power and feared it in good measures. "I will not move on this measure! Take this child and leave for your cove! I will return for him in sixteen years time!"

"...As you wish," Squalus said as she reluctantly took the bundle of cloths and child from her queen. She turned and began her exit of the summoning chamber.

"Hey Squalus! You forgot something!" one of the witches called out.

The witch shark turned in annoyance, thinking that the speaker had been mistaken. She hadn't been, now that the smoke had cleared she saw an unusual giant blade in the center of the summoning circle. Knowing she couldn't lift it herself, Squalus cast a spell and summoned one of her allies to her, a humanoid that resembled a great white shark with its giant mouth and fins. It gave short sound that was a mix between a gurgle and a grunt.

"I know you hate being out of the water Biter," Squalus told her familiar. "Look, just pick that sword up and we'll get out of here." The shark made the sound again as it picked up the sword (needing both arms) and followed its master out of the ritual chamber.

 _ **Alkatraz**_

Like most horrors of ancient history, the prison island had been transformed into a tourist attraction. Tourists would flock in daily, bringing in men, women, and children to give them a glimpse of what was the great prison of many criminals.

Squalus agreed that it was a great prison… by human standards. To her those bumbling fools couldn't create anything close to what the witches were capable of. But she also knew that humans were only capable of seeing something on the surface. The forgotten lower levels of the prison were perfect for her hideaway, close to the water for her and her sharks, damp and chilling, and a never ending supply of human that would 'unfortunately' go missing. She couldn't stage the kidnappings too often, less the human actually grow wise to her schemes, but an odd and forgettable individual at the end of a fairly busy day twice a year? No one was the wiser. And then there were those fools on the coast who were thought to have drowned…

As she returned to her home, the baby in her arms started to stir and tried to direct his head to her chest even with his eyes still closed. She groaned knowing he wanted food. She had Biter bring the oversized sword to her chamber while she took the child to his.

"I don't care how young you are brat," she hissed. "I AM NOT breastfeeding you." Not that she could produce milk in the first place. The child began stirring some more, but she ignored him as she simply carried him into a room that room that had been used for solitary confinement. It was completely covered in seaweed and moss so Squalus figured this was the best place to keep the child without having him hurt himself as she undid his clothes and laid him naked on the seaweed.

The child began to cry at the feeling of the substance and the witch groaned to herself. "Let's get you to be quiet," she said as she laid her hand on the child's chest and placed a magic sigil. Immediately the babies cries became inaudible. "That seal should also convert some of my magic to nutrients for you, so be thankful for that much."

As she started to pull her hand away, the child grabbed a finger with his right arm. Immediately, a powerful and painful burning sensation erupted through Squalus's entire body before she managed to get her finger free.

"YOU BRAT!" she screamed as she stormed out of the room, slamming the door and leaving the child with only a large amount of seaweed and his inaudible cries.

 _ **Eighteen Months Later- Death Weapon Meister's Academy**_

"All right, pencils down!"

Immediately, students took their hand off their pencils and their test sheets. Some student with calm faces, others with relieved once as the0y'd barely been able to finish, and more still looking like they'd already been told they'd failed.

"I'll post the results by monday unless I've got shit to do," the instructor told his students. "Bring all of your papers to the front, and for the love of god make sure you've got your names on them!"

The students did as requested and brought their papers to the front as their teacher leaned against the blackboard with his arms crossed. Once most of them had left a single student approached him.

"Hey Professor," the student said. "I just wanted to thank you for those tips about studying for this exam. Without you I'm pretty sure I would've flunked."

"Well it's in the job description, I'm supposed to teach aren't I?" the teacher said gruffly in response. "Now get lost, I got papers to grade."

"Oh, alright then," the student said as he walked to the door. "See you next week Professor Frederick!" he shouted over his shoulder before running into the hallway.

"That's Professor Badguy!" Sol shouted as his student ran out the door. "And walk in the hallways!" Rolling his eyes, the Gear Hunter turned Professor started pack his things in his suitcase. Currently he was wearing a white lab coat and his red headpiece that used to function as a limiter. He'd just finished packing when he heard another voice.

"Teaching might be a job, but you're always ready to help a student, aren't you?" Sol turned to the doorway where he found his young pink haired partner, Aria, leaning against the doorframe with a slightly smug smile wearing her usual white lab coat over casual clothing. "Sometimes I wonder if you're still that curt researcher you were when we first met on the Gear Project."

"Hey I'm a teacher; students need help, I help. It's what I'm supposed to do," Sol said with a roll of his eyes before giving a small smirk of his own. "Have I really changed that much?"

"Well you're definitely a _little_ less stuck up," Aria said with a smirk as she approached Sol and gently put her arms around his neck while he put his arms around her waist. "I guess you ought to thank your lovely wife for that one, right?"

"I guess I should," Sol admitted with an actual smile. Not a smug one or a condescending one, an actual one that he only used around Aria.

The two had arrived in this world about five years ago and their memories were pretty distorted. While Aria could only partially remember her time as Justice, Sol could remember only a few of the events that had lead to his final showdown, which he'd assumed had been against his mortal enemy, _That Man_ , but even he couldn't be completely sure.

The two had remembered each other and had decided to travel together, along the way meeting meisters from the DWMA. As it turned out, both of their souls had adapted enough to this world, transforming Sol into a meister and Aria into a powerful weapon. Sol's first idea had been to hunt Kishins as bounties for Death, but Aria's lecture managed to convince him just to help out.

While the rules of this new world had taken some getting used to for Sol, he'd managed to turn Aria into a Death Scythe in only ten short months. Instead of giving her to Lord Death and have her replace the still new Spirit as his personal weapon, the two continued to work together. It wasn't the most popular of decision, but it was still approved by Death (much to Spirit's relief).

Since then Sol had gone to work for the DWMA as a teacher, passing on knowledge to a new generation. It wasn't the easiest of jobs, but one he secretly enjoyed. Aria simply helped around the academy where she was needed, whether that be subbing in for teachers or simply carrying messages. About a year ago they'd gotten married and had been pretty happy since then.

"So what brings you here?" Sol asked. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but don't you usually work later than this?"

"Normally yeah, but I ran into Spirit and-"

"Let me guess," Sol began as he let go his his wife. "He wanted to spread the word about his wife and they joy he was going to have when she finally gives birth."

"Oh I already heard his scream from across town when he first found out she was pregnant this morning, believe you me," Aria said, grimacing only slightly. "Still tried to talk my ear off even when I told him I'd already heard." She shook her head. "But no, he told me some other news; they finally found a witch's location."

That got Sol's attention. "And they're sending us in?"

"Yeah, from what we can tell about the last three students that attacked her at once and barely managed to come back, they need an instructor for this."

Sol nodded as he went to his desk and grabbed his suitcase. "Then I guess we've got to go, at least this beats grading papers."

 _ **USA Westcoast- Time: 22:47 Western United States Time**_

Sol and Aria got off of the boat at Alcatraz and looked around the Island. Tours had already ended for the day, so no one would be here to get in the way.

"What's the best way to get to the witch's chamber?" Aria asked their boat driver, Sid.

"The passage down to the lower levels hasn't been printed on any maps, so your best bet's just to find the sharks, take them down, and find where they're coming from."

"Works for me," Sol grunted. He was dressed in his battle clothing now (the kind from Xrd) "You coming with us?"

"No, this is your job," Sid told them. "I don't interfere with others' hunts, I'm not the type of man."

"Suit yourself I guess," Aria said with as she held her hand out for her husband. Sol took it and with a bright flash of light, Aria transformed into Sol's modified version of the _Fireseal_ (the one from Overture) which he held backhanded. The bounty hunter had learned that with some practice he could become further in tune with Aria's wavelength and unlock more powerful forms. Originally she'd just been the first _Fireseal_ , but now she'd grown enough in power to unlock a more recent form.

"We'll be back soon," Sol told Sid as he headed into the prison.

"I don't doubt it," the boat driver said with a small smirk.

When the two got inside, Sol kept his sense open as he slowly walked through the corridor. He could still sense the evil souls, but since they were still in the tour area, he doubted that he'd get attacked just yet, a good time to ask something that had been on his mind for a while.

"Hey Aria," Sol began aloud. "What's been on your mind lately?"

" _You're asking this now?_ " Aria said to him telepathically through her sword form with a hint of disapproval. " _Sol, this really isn't a good time._ "

"Aria, I had a feeling that something was going on about a couple of days ago, but now that we're on the same soul length I can easily feel some tension. Seriously, what's going on?"

" _Sol I… Just not now, alright? I promise I'll tell you when all of this is over, but for now let's focus on the mission._ "

"If you say so," Sol said as he opened the door that led to the lower floors. Further down the path he saw a group of shark humanoids represents varying types of sharks, some of them indigenous to this part of the ocean. "Time to get to work."

" _Remember, we're trying to destroy the witch and her servants, not Alcatraz. Try not to get too carried away."_

"I got it, I got it," Sol said as he rushed forward towards the sharks. The first one didn't even have any time to react as he was cut through and dissolved into a purple corrupted soul. A great white shark lunged forward, but Sol delivered a flaming fist to its gut, crushing its internal organs and sending it flying into the wall and turning it too into a corrupted soul. Several more sharks approached the two, but Sol simply sent out a charged gunflame and incinerated them.

Out of the flame, one last shark emerged, but Sol managed to catch the monster easily with his free hand. He then gave grunt and he slammed the monster into the ground behind him and destroyed it.

"Boring," he muttered before activating _Soul Magnet_ , an ability which had Aria attract and absorb the corrupted souls. She didn't consume them, she'd already met her quota to become a Death Scythe, but teachers at the DWMA sometimes gave extra Kishin souls to students who did well on the exams so she stored them.

Sol noticed several of sets of shuffling feet retreating towards the lower levels. He grunted and continued to take his time walking down the steps. The further down he got, the worse the smell of rotten algae and seaweed was becoming stronger and Sol could faintly hear the sound of waves in the background.

" _You should hurry,_ " Aria spoke in Sol's mind. " _Chances are that they've got a plan to escape if you scare them enough and we can't let the witch get away_ "

"If they wanted to run they'd be in the water by now," Sol told her. "They don't want to escape, they just wanted to chose the battlefield. Hmph, and they think it's enough."

Sure enough as Sol descended a last staircase, there was the witch waiting for them, surrounded by thirty of her shark servants. The witch was standing on top of a body of water with her arms crossed.

"I should have never let those urchins of yours return home alive," the witch said to Sol as her minions snapped furiously. "Feeding their arms to my pets should have been message enough for you stupid fools to stay away from my home!" The witch then grinned, revealing her serrated teeth. "Then again, perhaps you'd make a better meal for us."

"Problem with that lady," Sol began darkly as he entire body gave off a short burst of flames. "I'm at the top of the food chain."

"Oh, a fire ability? Interesting…" the witch said as she stroked her chin. "But you fail to realize the obvious, you are surrounded by water; how do you plan to use that power here?" With a wave of her hand, three shark beings lunged forward.

Sol slashed upwards and cut through one of the sharks and killed it before smashing his fist down upon another shark, destroying the brain. He quickly turned his body and unleashed a powerful flaming kick on the third one, pouring enough fire magic to completely destroy the torso. As he finished he saw the witch casting a spell as spheres of water surrounded her.

" _ **Aqua Needles.**_ "

A storm of water bullets flew towards Sol, who quickly leapt out of the way to avoid the attack. Another shark attempt to chomp on him, but the Bounty Hunter quickly decapitated the monster. Before quickly stabbing his sword into the opponent behind him.

" _ **Wave Edge!**_ " the witch cast.

A razor edge of water was cast at him by the witch, but Sol managed to break it with the _FireSeal._ He then rushed forward with a flaming _Fafnir_ fist and took down another shark. Seeing three more lunge from the front, he knew how to handle them.

" _ **Grand Viper!**_ " Sol shouted as he created a massive flaming uppercut and cut through the sharks and launched himself in midair. Several more monsters tried to leap up and kill him from below. "Get lost!" he shouted while ax kicking the highest one and send it and the rest sprawling to the floor. Sol landed on the floor in front of another shark. " _ **Tyrant-!**_ " he began as his right fist smashing into the shark. " _ **Rave!**_ " he finished sending a blast of fire out of his flaming right punch, obliterating the shark in front of him its allies behind. Sol tensed before lunging towards the witch standing atop the water to finish the fight.

" _ **Ocean Prison!**_ " the witch shouted in desperation. Sol grunted as he became completely encased in a thick water sphere. The witch cackled. "You fool! I told you an idiot fire user like you could never defeat a witch of the ocean! The sphere that you're in is ten times as dense as regular water! You can't move and you can't breath! I can just sit here and wait for you to drown you-!"

Sol cut the witch off in surprise by moving his right arm as if it were going through regular water and flipping his middle finger at the hag. As the witch stuttered in surprise, Sol focused his fire magic and unleashed a burst of flame that destroyed the prison in an explosion of hot steam, the force of which was enough to send everyone else flying. The witch had just slammed against the wall as Sol lunged forward and carved her from head to foot with his flaming sword. The witch gave a pathetic wail before her body dissolved, leaving only a red witch's soul.

"You talked too damn much," Sol grunted as he had Aria absorb all of the souls (since their master had died, the remaining sharks had quickly followed). Once that had been done, he tossed his sword into the air where it transformed into his wife. "And we're done."

"Looks like it," Aria said with a small smile. "So now we just investigate the rest of this place and see if we can find anything that will lead us to the other witches."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Sol said before craning his head. "You hear something?"

"Yeah it sounded like…" Aria gasped as she heard the sound clearly now; an infant's wailing. Not hesitating for an instant she took off running towards the sounds.

"Aria, wait!" Sol shouted as he took off after her, his wife actually managing to outrun him. ' _What the hell's gotten into her? We're still in a witch's lair!_ '

Aria followed the cries down a series of hallways. As she ran the sounds coming closer and closer and hallways seemed darker and further out of the way. Finally she came to the source of the crying; an iron door with the look rusted shut. She tried pulling the door out, it didn't budge.

"Aria!" Sol shouted as he finally caught up with her.

"Break the door down!" Aria shouted as the baby continued to cry inside. "Frederick, break it down! Break it down now!"

"All right, stand back," he ordered before breaking the lock with his bare hand. He then gripped the door handle and tore it open from it's rusted shut position. When he got a look inside, he had to fight the urge to vomit, something he didn't think Gears could do. "Holy shit…"

The room inside was completely covered in seaweed and the stench of it was unbearable. Laying in the middle of the floor was an infant with albino hair and a right arm wrapped in dark material who lay naked as he continued to scream with his eyes tightly closed. He was so thin that you could see his skeleton and he body fluids surrounded him as he'd been unable to move. His skin was tinged green, indicating that he'd had to lay on the seaweed for a VERY long time.

While Sol could only stare, Aria slowly made her way forward toward the child and knelt beside him before slowly picking him. "Hey…" she said gently as she carried him in her arms and he continued to cry. "Shhhhhh… I've got you." His crying lightened to a whimper while the child shivered at the cold. "Sol, hold him for a second." The child even felt slimy as Sol held him in his hands trying not to bring him too close. Luckily Aria was quick at removing her lab coat and bundled it around the baby. "Okay Sol, take him and keep him warm."

The Prototype Gear reluctantly nodded as he took the small bundle of clothing in his arms and applied a minimal amount of fire magic to his arms to create additional body heat and warm the kid. It seemed to do the trick as the child's whimpers slowly quieted as it fell into a sleep. Now that Sol could take his eyes off the kid for a moment, he noticed Aria's state as her knuckles shook.

"That... that monster!" Aria cried out. "How could she treat a child so inhumanly!? How long has he had to live like this!?"

"Aria calm down," Sol ordered. "We can worry about that later. For right now we got to get the kid out of this hell hole."

"All right…" Aria said. "Come on, let's head to the boat. We can have someone investigate this place later."

The two began their slightly hurried walk back towards the entrance, Sol still carrying the wrapped child in his arms as he kept him warm with his heated arms. While the child didn't move, Sol could still feel his light breathing. He noticed Aria looking at the baby sadly as they walked.

"He's alright, just sleeping," Sol assured.

Aria shook her head. "Sol… earlier you asked what I was worried about."

"Hey, you can tell me later. Getting the kid out's more important anyways."

"No, I need to tell you now. I've being going to the doctor's recently… and I got the results earlier today."

"Aria, don't tell me you're sick again," Sol said with a worried gaze. Aria had gotten sick decades ago back in their own world and that had lead to the creation of Justice and the origin point of the _Crusades_.

"No, it's not that. The doctor told me that I'm as healthy as can be… except for my ovaries." Sol was silent, he knew where his wife was going. "They… they don't work, I can't produce eggs and… I can't have a baby."

"Aria…" Sol said sadly, before looking down at the kid in his arms and sighing. "All right, I get it. Let's just get him out of here first, okay?"

"Okay," Aria said with a sad smile.

 _ **DWMA- Mirror Room**_

"Well that's an unexpected twist," came the squeaky and comedic voice of the Death God. "I didn't think that there was a child to be found." Death leaned forward to observe the sleeping boy wrapping in the lab coat in Aria's arms. "There's something unusual about this one's soul… something dark. And it's not just the power I'm sensing from the arm."

"Well if it's a bad as Aira put it, the kid's going to be pretty hateful," Spirit told them, clearly disgusted with the story as he was going to be a father in several months. "Still can't believe anyone would treat a kid that way, even a witch. By the way, whatever happened to Sol?"

"He took a detour to get a doctor and sent me ahead,' Aria explained. "He'll back pretty soon."

"Took a detour?" Spirit asked in confusion. "But we've already got a doctor here, what's he got to go out of town for?"

"The child's condition is not a normal one," Death explained. "Sol and Aria both thought it necessary to bring in the best expert in this field."

"An expert?" Spirit thought before realization hit him like a spiked hammer. "No! You don't mean-!"

"Well, given the circumstances I thought it was wise move," Death said using his oversized hands for a casual shrug. "He's not going to stay for long."

"Not him! Not Doctor Franken Stein!" Spirit screamed in agony as he fell to his knees and pulled at his hair. "Do you know what he's done to me!? I still have the scars from all of those hideous experiments he did to me in my sleep! He's a cold madman that plagues my nightmares to this day!"

"Stop screaming! You're going to wake the baby!" Aria hissed. "If all you're going to do is cry about it then just get out of here!"

"Good idea! I'm coming home honey!" Spirit yelled as he ran off as fast as he could, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

"Well now, I can't say that wasn't expected," Death said before noticing the bundle shift around in Aria's arms. "Oh? Looks like he's about to wake up."

Aria undid the top part of the bundle revealing the child's face. His skin seemed to be doing better now, the green tinge from earlier almost completely gone and his skin starting to fill out more, almost like he was healing on his own. He gave a small yawn before opening his eyes, revealing a red iris on the right side and a green on his left.

"Hey there," Aria said in soft tone. The baby looked up at her and stared into her eyes for a moment before closing his eyes again and leaning against her body. "He's still tired."

"Not surprising, he's been through a lot," Death commented. "I wish my little junior would go down as easily."

"He's only a month old, it's going to take a lot longer to get him to go down regularly," Aria told him.

"Yes, but sometimes the only way I can get him to fall asleep is to put on a show for him using my hands… Odd that he only seems to laugh when they're symmetrical."

The mirror behind Death began glowing. After a moment, a vision of Sid was revealed on in it, probably through a handheld mirror since he seemed to be holding it.

"Lord Death, Aria, I just completed my investigation of the Alcatraz Island. I found some things you should probably see."

"Okay," Aria said as she held the child's head so he wouldn't see what was on the screen. "Sorry for having to send you back to the island Sid."

"Hey, a child's safety beats avoiding overtime, that's the kind of man I am," Sid said with a small grin before his expression turned serious again. "Most of the things I found were just your average witch ingredients and potions, but unlike the other witches I didn't find a journal here. In her room though, I found these."

Sid moved the camera revealing a red coat and black hamaka along with shoes and a glove. The gloves design matched the child's unusual arm.

"They didn't seem like something a witch would have, but I took a closer look at his coat and I found a few white hairs on it, hairs like the kid has. Also found this," Sid said as he moved the camera to face a giant sword. "The thing's heavy, even I had trouble lifting it."

"This is unsettling," Death said. "I've never seen a sword of that design and even though that outfit is clearly too large for the child I have a strong suspicious that it's his directly."

"I was thinking the same thing," Sid said. "Finally, I found some sort of message inside the coat pockets. It's torn and drenched beyond belief, but it seems to be addressed to someone named Ragna."

"Ragna?" Aria said as she looked at the baby in her arms. "Could that be his name?"

"It's very likely, but I don't know what any of this means. If I have your permission Lord Death, can I bring these objects back to Death City?"

"You have my go ahead," Death said, using one of his gloves to give Sid a big 'thumbs up.' "Go ahead and get back here, you've had a long night."

"We all have," Sid said shaking his head. "But how's the kid doing?"

"Much better," Aria told him. "We're having a doctor come in soon to have a look at him."

"That's good. Alright, see you when I get back. Sid out."

As the mirror became a simple mirror again, the two then heard steps approaching them. Sol came forward with a mean wearing a stitched sweater with a lab coat over it. But the thing most likely to catch your eye was a giant bolt going through his head.

"It's been a while Lord Death," Dr. Stein said, adjusting the giant bolt that went through his head. "Aria." He said with an acknowledging nod which she returned to him. "I don't see Spirit anywhere."

"He heard you were coming," Aria informed.

"That would do it," Stein agreed laxly before looking at the child. "I can see what Sol was saying, he does seem like an odd one." Held his arms out to take the child from Aria, but the former scientist instead jabbed a finger right into his face.

"Not ONE STITCH Stein," she threatened darkly. "Not. One. Stitch."

"Unless it proves that he needs surgery, you have my word," Stein agreed. Reluctantly, Aria slowly handed over the bundle which Stein slowly unwrapped. "Let's see what I can identify here. His skin still seems slightly green from the seaweed, but it seems to be returning to normal readily and the rest of his body doesn't seem to be carrying any diseases. Odd, but I suppose we can attribute that towards his strange soul and arm. His body looks like it hasn't been given any food, only nutrients… I can suggest a brand of specialized but over the counter baby formula that should help him even out, though make sure he's slowly moved to normal food soon afterwards."

"He can tell all of this at a glance?" Aria whispered to her husband.

"Why do you think I brought him here?" Sol told her. "He's literally the best man on the planet for this. No one understands the human body better than him"

"His body obviously needs to be washed," Stein continued before briefly pinch the child's arm causing him to squirm slightly. "His skin seems to fine for a child, so you can afford to be at least a little thorough." He gently pull back the child's lip. "He has a few teeth and they need washing. That should do it for body care."

"Thank god there isn't anything serious," Aria said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Your welcome!" Death said in his squeaky voice giving an oversized 'peace' sign with one of his hands. Everyone turned to glare at him (even the baby). "Bad time?"

"Poor jokes aside," Stein continued as he held Ragna's fight arm. "There's still the matter of his soul and arm. The arm doesn't seem to resemble any type of witches weapon that I've seen before, and the power surrounding it doesn't even seem to originate with any known form of magic."

"I picked up on that too," Sol told him. "Even the magic from my world didn't act like this."

"Yes, but the strangest thing is that appears to have been altered and while it may be a stretch to say it, the causes seem very similar to yours and Aria's. Pair that with the fact that his soul actually seems to be much older than the boy itself and you begin to wonder how he came to be."

"Concerning facts to be sure," Death said. "But the question remains what we're to do about it?"

"For all I know this could be nothing," Stein said, handing the bundle back to Aria. "But I don't think we can take the chance. He'll have to be monitored." The doctor adjusted his glasses with a smirk directed to Sol. "And judging by how used to Aria the baby is in such a short time, I think I know which couple this duty will fall to."

"Mph…" Sol grunted as he crossed his arms. "Fine."

"Come on," Aria said nudging her husband slightly. "You saw this coming."

"I did," Sol admitted.

"So… do you think I can start calling you Sol _Dad_ guy?" Aria asked with a smirk. Sol glared at her while the baby giggled. "See? He has a good sense of humor, you could learn a thing from your new son."

' _She's enjoying this too much,'_ Sol thought to himself. ' _But as long as she's happy, I don't really care._ ' "So what are we going to call him?"

"Well…" Aria said as she held the baby in front her. "How about Ragna?"

"Ragna, huh? I guess it works, but why that name?"

"Tell you later," Aria promised. "Stein, thank you so much for your help on such short notice. Is there anything we can do for you before you leave? Coffee? Tea? Money?"

"Thanks for the offer, but I need to head back to my lab, I'm still the renegade Meister horror story used to get students to behave." Stein said as he took a pad of paper out of his coat pocket and quickly wrote something on it before handing it to Aria. "Here's the baby formula I recommended. You should be able to find it in most drug stores."

"We'll get it, we'll get it…" Sol groaned. "That and god knows what else."

"Well…" Death began.

"Don't start."

 _ **POLL DETAILS**_

 _ **Author's Note: I don't own BlazBlue, Guilty Gear, or Soul Eater. I also do not condone the scenes of neglect done to baby Ragna by shark witch. Seriously.**_

 _ **I never learn do I? Now I've got another story to update. Hoping that this story will reach several readers I'm actually going to open a poll with all of my currently updating stories on it. The winner of said poll with get updated every OTHER time, meaning I'll be pumping out chapters like crazy. Updates available on other stories.**_

 _ **Back to this story though, I know I tried to do a lot here, so if any of you have questions, PM me and I'll try to explain my craziness to you all (not responsible for therapy need afterwards). This story will also be following the Anime more, as it's easier to access for me and I didn't really like most things that the manga did. (It's the common opinion as I understand it)**_

 _ **I'm going to be posting this story to the Soul Eater page first because (let's face it) I'll get more views here and get the message out easier that this thing exists.**_

 _ **Also, Sol, Aria, and Ragna are the only three characters outside of Soul Eater that I'm going to bring into this. So please don't ask for more. Will I make Omakes of other characters crossing over? Possibly, but let me get the main story established first.**_

 _ **Pairing ideas are welcome, but I'm not sure if I'm going to have this be at all romantic, but I honestly don't have a side I'm leaning to. We'll just have to see down the line.**_

 _ **Until then, Ciao!**_


	2. The Reaper's Growth

_A life once lived was filthy… A life once lived was broken… How much can this life differ?_

 _ **Soul I: A Reaper's Upbringing**_

"Aw, he's so adorable," Marie cooed as she looked at the young baby in Aria's arms and gently poked his cheeks. "Aren't you little guy, aren't you?"

Aria gave a whimsical sigh as Ragna giggled while the wind sent a brustle through the leaves of Death City Park. Leave it to her son to be such a charmer for the ladies… actually that wasn't entirely true. Most of the times, she went out with Ragna most of the woman glanced at them, but would quickly shy away. She guessed it was mainly because of Ragna's right arm, but it worried her if this would affect him as he grew. At least she could count on Marie not to judge… but then again she did wear that eyepatch, so she wasn't too normal herself.

"When I heard the news that you'd managed to adopt a sweet baby boy I just had to visit the city and meet the little cutie," Marie said with a smile. "What did you decide to name him? Or did the previous parents give him one?"

"We named him Ragna, but his former family's a little hard to explain," Aria told her friend. "I guess Lord Death didn't give you full news then…"

"Hmm? No not really, he just told me that you and Freddy managed to find a new son and that I should come over and see him," Marie explained, letting Aria know that Death had left all off the explaining to her. "So what's the deal with Ragna's old family?"

"The thing is we really don't know where they are, but I'm beginning to doubt that they're still around. All that happened was we found him about a week ago in Alcatraz where a witch had been hiding out."

"You found him in witch's lair? On an island prison,?" Marie said surprisedly before sighing. "I doubt that witch was going to teach him to do anything good with his life."

"I don't think she was going to teach him anything at all," Aria said sadly. "When we found him he was being kept in solitary confinement for who knows how long. It was pretty ugly and he looked worse than words could describe." Marie stared at her and the baby, not moving a muscle except for her twitching eye. "Uh… Marie?"

The blond's arm instantly transformed into a warhammer head and her good eye was filled with fury as a fiery aura coated her entire body. " _ **WHERE IS THAT BITCH!?**_ "

"Marie calm down, she's already dead," Aria said, hoping that her friends outburst hadn't scared her son. It hadn't, if anything Ragna was giggling even harder afterwards. ' _Looks like he's going to take after Frederick… great.'_ "Trust me, I reacted like you did at first, but we had a doctor look over Ragna and he's doing much better now."

"Oh, alright then," Marie said as her aggression faded. "It just doesn't seem right that a cute little kid like him should have to go through a hellish upbringing like that. I mean do you even know where he came from?"

'We have a couple of ideas, but as of right now Frederick and I are happily filling the roles of Ragna's parents. We can't really ask for much more," Aria said happily before noticing how thoughtfully Aria was looking at Ragna. "Something wrong?"

"I think I've decided… that I'm going to marry Ragna," Marie said as casually as one might announce the weather.

"Eh?" Aria wasn't expecting THAT. "You mean that you're going to try and marry him in future… hypothetically right?"

"Nope! I mean right now!" The mallet Death Scythe said with a happy aura surrounding her. "Think about it; he'll never say anything bad about me, he'll love me since a young age, and his he won't get any wrinkles for a really long time!"

' _Oh Lord Death she's serious… I need to talk her out of this now!_ ' "It's probably not a good idea; I mean Ragna won't be able to support you with a job until he's older." Marie didn't seem to react to that. "That and do you know how bad it is to change diapers of your soul mate?"

"I guess," Marie admitted sadly as Aria sighed with relief. The blonde might have always meant well, but her desire to find a husband was a pretty unnerving at times, even going as far to marry stationary objects like a barbeque. 'By the way, how has Sol adapted to being a father?"

"He's…" Aria began, cringing slightly. "So far he's done as well as I thought he would…"

" _I've fought a Gear that was literally made of slime," Sol began looking down at Ragna. "I've been bathed head to toe in blood, I've had to swim through a sewer… So why am I so disgusted changing a stupid crappy diaper!?"_

"That's sounds pretty vague," Marie told her friend before shrugging it off. "Well I should probably head back to my hotel and get some rest; I was only able to get this one day off before I head back to Oceanica."

"All right, great to see you again," Aria told her friend.

"Great to see you too, give Sol my best," Marie said as she began to leave. "Bye Bye Ragna," she called from over her shoulder.

"Bye bye," Ragna said, waving his left infant hand from Aria's arms as Maria smiled and finished walking out of sight, his mother flinching at what he'd just done.

It wasn't the first time Ragna had shown to be smarter than anything she or Frederick had exposed him to; a few days ago when Aria began feeding him oatmeal as his first solid food, Ragna actually managed to grab the spoon from her and be able to feed himself within a few minutes before she'd given him one bite. Before that Aria had gotten in a small argument with her husband concerning his hair.

" _You really need a different hairstyle," Aria had said while helping her husband tie his ponytail while he got ready for his first day of work at the academy since they'd brought Ragna back._

" _I already have to cut it every few days otherwise it starts spouting out everywhere. That doesn't leave a lot of time to try styling it with my job," Sol argued back. "Besides, what's wrong with it?"_

" _I just prefer the shorter style you used back when we were scientists," Aria said as she finished doing Sol's ponytail. "Back then it wasn't so… so…"_

" _Long."_

 _The two parents looked in surprise as they'd seen that Ragna had spoken while looking at them from his highchair. Aria may have been looking for a different word, but the fact that Ragna's first word had been used correctly was shocking._

Instances like that made Aria believe that Stein had been right about Ragna's supposedly older soul as well as his theory that he'd come from a different world, but this wasn't the same as her or Sol's case. When it was just them, they'd at least appeared close to their age with most of their memories intact (as far as Aria could remember, Sol had told her that she'd actually died), but Ragna might never regain memories, and for all she knew he could continue to get smarter as time went on.

As she walked back to the apartment that she and Sol were staying in, with Ragna in his baby stroller as she listened to him breath while he gently fell asleep, she decided it'd be something that she'd worry about it later. Ragna was her son, hers and Sol's, and they'd never let anything change that.

 _ **Five Years Later**_

Sol grunted as he sat at his desk late one friday night grading essay papers that he'd just gotten from his students covering the origins and early history of Phasmology. Several students had done the work right, but others had gotten a heaping ton of information wrong. Sol might have been hard on the students while teaching them (in his opinion it got him results), but saw himself as fair when it came to grading the final products.

He'd just finished grading one of the most half assed papers when he heard a knock on the door frame. He turned his head and glared at the man who made the noise.

"I'm busy working unlike some people," he said heatedly to the redhead in the doorway. "Beat it."

"Hey don't be like that, I've got an idea that can help you out big time," Spirit said with an all-knowing grin.

"Nothing you could say would ever help me and I've got papers to grade. I'm already going to get home to Aria and the kid after they've had dinner so I don't want some happy go lucky Death Scythe getting on my nerves and keeping me even later." Sol had agreed to watch Ragna tomorrow for Aria, so he wanted to finish these papers now so he didn't need to grade them at the last minute.

"Actually this concerns Ragna. I'm giving you some advice as a fellow dad." The grin stayed.

' _I'm making a big mistake listening to this idiot,'_ Sol thought grimly as he moved on to another paper. "Let's hear it…"

"Well for starters it's not really that big of a secret that Ragna's sort of an outsider…" Spirit began. "I mean he's already been in two fights this week alone and the other kids have a tendency to try to bully him in groups."

"I hear it differently," Sol argued as he continued to grade. "Sure some of those fights were kids picking on him, but most of them were cases of him defending other students. He's probably the only one in his grade with some actual guts."

"Yeah that's true," Spirit admitted. "But do you know if anyone he's saved has ever thanked him?"

"Well…" Sol stopped writing as he thought back, he thought hard. "No actually, I don't think I have... Look, just get to the point."

"Well my little Maka's the complete opposite," Spirit said as his body went Chibi-mode with fatherly pride (painting a picture here, deal with it). "She's the most popular person in her preschool and everyone loves her. Her teachers keep sending us back good daily report cards and-"

"I get it, your daughter's the perfect little girl of the school," Sol said with a sigh. He knew that Spirit could be exaggerating a lot of what he was saying, but he'd heard a couple of parents praising Maka, saying that she was just like her mother. "So what?"

"So what if your son and my little Maka got together for a playdate?" Spirit suggested. "As far as I understand, Ragna doesn't really have anyone he can call a friend. If Maka and Ragna can become friends or at least get along, he'll have someone his age to relate to."

' _That's… actually not a terrible idea,'_ Sol thought to himself. "I guess, but what about your daughter and her _perfect reputation_? Wouldn't other kids start avoiding her if they see her hanging out with my son?"

"Already got that part covered," Spirit said with another smirk. "She's already everyone's favorite kid, so if she tries to play with Ragna everyone will just think of her as a little hero, trying to help a troubled kid."

"Sounds more like you're treating him like a lost puppy," the Gear Hunter accused, gritting his teeth at the BS.

"Hey, we can at least try it right? I'll be at Death City Park with Maka around 3 PM tomorrow. Come with Ragna, who knows, maybe they'll get along… From what I can tell, she's at least not scared of his arm."

"...I'll think about it," Sol promised. The Death Scythe took that answer as some begrudging form of 'yes' and left the classroom, leaving Sol to grade the papers. As the Professor went back to his work, his thoughts mainly went to his adopted son.

A couple of months ago, he'd seen Ragna come home after Aria trusted him to go to the park for the first time by himself, as Sol convinced her to let him go. Ragna had come back a little under a half hour later after Aria had realized that she was missing some ingredients for dinner and went out shopping. Ragna's return home hadn't been pretty, he'd come back with his t-shirt and jeans torn, bruises on his arm and face, a cut lip, and a black eye. Another concerning part was the fact that by the time Aria had come home an hour later, Ragna's wounds were gone, meaning he'd been hurt worse than what Sol had seen. (For the record, he hadn't hidden it. He told Aria what had happened after Ragna went to bed and had owned up to his mistake).

The next day Aria had gotten seven phone calls from angry parents of students a few years older than Ragna, arguing about bruised kids and a broken arm. Aria had held her ground and told them that Ragna wasn't the type of person to pick the fights he got into, but there was still some tension, even now. For all Sol knew, Ragna had never really had that one person he could call a friend, that someone to connect with. Sure when he went to park he played with other kids, but that was just because there he was there watching. Even then it wasn't the most interactive of games, mostly just _Lava Monster_ and _Tag._

Aria was going to go out shopping tomorrow anyways and he was already watching Ragna… couldn't hurt to go out. He didn't really see anything more productive Ragna could possibly do aside from teaching him how to fight, but he'd already been doing that regularly during the week.

 _ **Next Day**_

"So where are we going again?" Ragna asked his father figure as the two walked through town. He was wearing a crimson red v-neck t-shirt which showed off some of his still developing muscles, cargo shorts, and black sneakers.

"The park," Sol told him. He was wearing white jeans, and red sneakers.

"Can't we just head over to the school and train?" Ragna groaned. "It'd be less annoying."

' _Probably would be,'_ his father thought to himself as the two continued to walk. ' _Still this might be just the thing he needs.'_ "Take a break kid, we've been training together almost every day this week. Just enjoy a day at the park, even if it's just for today."

"Fine…" Ragna sighed. "So why the sudden change? Normally if you wanted me to take it easy you'd want me to read or use the TV for once." While Sol's apartment had a TV, the thing hadn't been turned on in weeks. Ragna loved reading books so he didn't really watch TV (even though neither of his parents had set any rules for using it) and if Sol wanted to catch the news he'd get it from work, and the news he didn't get there he'd catch on the radio.

' _Might as well tell him.'_ "We're meeting up with some people I know. You've heard of Death Scythe's daughter Maka right?"

"Yeah, I've heard a lot about her from teachers. A lot of them asking me _why can't you be like her_ even though she's a full grade behind me. I never actually met her though."

"What do you think of her though?"

"Nothing,"" Ragna said casually.

"What do you mean nothing? You've been compared to her, surely you think something, kid."

"Nope," Ragna said. "If I never met her why should I judge her?"

' _...Guess he really does take after me,'_ Sol thought. "Well we're going to meet them there, alright?"

"Okay, but why?" Ragna asked curiously. "I thought you found Death Scythe annoying."

"...Your mother," Sol said as his general excuse. He'd told Aria about the idea last night and she'd been for it, so he decided to make it look like her idea instead of a conspiracy to get Ragna a friend.

"Oh," Ragna said in understanding.

They managed to make it to the park pretty quickly after that. The only people there was spirit in his blue jeans, black t-shirt, and sandals, and his daughter Maka in a light green button up shirt, orange overalls, and brown lace boots. Her light brown hair was done in pigtails.

"Oh, funny running into you here Sol," Spirit said from here sat on the park bench. Ragna glanced at his father who rolled his eyes. "This must be your kid, Ragna. Nice to met you sport."

"Uh… nice to meet you?" Ragna said unsurly.

"No reason to act so formal," Spirit said with another cocky yet goofy grin. "I'm not on duty as a Death Scythe right now, but I guess I can understand if you're intimidated."

Ragna sent a glance at Sol that basically said 'Does he really have this big of an ego?' Sol sent a look back that, sadly, Ragna could interpret clearly as 'You haven't seen anything yet.'

"Hi," the young girl said to Ragna before holding out her right hand for him to shake. "I'm Maka."

"Oh, nice to meet you…" Ragna said, slowly bringing his right arm up, just so that Maka was aware that she was about to shake a hand that scared the other kids. Maka didn't flinch or even blink and shook hands.

"Hey, wanna go on the swings?" she asked cheerfully.

"Alright, sure," Ragna said as the two ran off to the playground.

Once they were gone, Spirit's cocky smile seemed to only grow. "Well that didn't take long, did it?"

"Shut up," Sol grunted as he took a seat next to him and crossed his arms.

"Come on, you can at least say 'Good idea Spirit' or 'I guess you were right.'

"You've already got too big of an ego," Sol told him. "I'm not feeding it."

"Spoilsport," Spirit muttered.

Meanwhile on the swingset, Ragna and Maka continued to swing to and fro.

"So what's up with your arm?" Maka asked Ragna with general curiosity.

For all of the flack Ragna had gotten for having a weird arm, he wasn't prepared to answer any questions about it. Normally people just stared at his arm before shying away and making sure to avoid Ragna afterwards.

"I'm not really sure…" Ragna started as he slowed in his swinging. "My parents say that I've had it ever since I was little. They don't really know how I got it either…"

"What? How could they not know?" Maka asked as she kept swinging.

"Well for one thing I was adopted…" Ragna told her. "I mean don't get me wrong they're still my parents. Mom's always been there to support me a give advice and my dad…" From where he sat on the park bench Sol listened to the conversation, Ragna unaware that he was talking loud enough. "He's been tough on me, like really tough. He's constantly pushing me in training and made me learn to read in a week… but at the same time I think that's his way of supporting me. He keeps pushing me further, kinda like he believes I can do it."

"Sounds like he's a pretty cool dad," Maka said smiling.

Ragna gave a bit of a smile himself. "He is… he really is."

' _Guess I'm not a terrible dad at least,'_ Sol thought contently to himself on the park bench. He then noticed Spirit looking at him, more smug than usual. "What the hell are you looking at?"

"You're smiling," Spirit said playfully.

Sol groaned. "So what? Some new rule say I can't?" Sol rolled his eyes before realizing something. "By the way, why the hell aren't you going all defensive? Every time a boy gets close to Maka you normally start frothing at the mouth."

"It's all part of my master plan," Spirit told him with a victorious gleam in his eyes. "If I get them to meet early enough they'll start acting like brother and sister. And given how intimidating your son is, as they get older and my little Maka begins to bloom into a beautiful young flower, Ragna will be there to scare away any thugs that try to get close to my daugher."

' _Wait… so he's using my SON… my son he barely knows… to protect his daughter from guys who-'_ Sol gritted his teeth, got off the park bench, and headed towards to two children. ' _I could just pound Spirit's face in, but that wouldn't be enough… This, on the other hand, will hit him where it hurts._ '

The Death Scythe watched in confusion as Sol talked began talking with the kids, keeping his voice low enough to where Spirit couldn't tell what was being said, but Maka seemed to like the idea. He faintly heard her say 'I play that with my papa all the time,' but that was it. A few minutes later he walked back to Spirit and sat next to him.

"What were you saying to them?"

"Oh… just suggesting a game they could play," Sol said ominously as he put his hand behind his head and leaned back.

"A game? What kind of game could you possibly-?"

"Honey I'm home!" came Maka's voice.

Spirit's jaw hit the ground and his eyes grew wide as he stared at the two children underneath the playset. Sol had to fight the urge to burst out laughing as Spirit made ugly grunts of pain and surprise.

"Welcome home, uh… sweetie," Ragna said unsurly to Maka, causing Spirit's eyes to bulge further while Ragna blush awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head. "How was your day?"

"You told them to play HOUSE!?" Spirit screamed at Sol, now the Gear Hunter was the one looking smug as Ragna pretended to make dinner. "Why are you doing this to me?!"

"To screw with you," Sol told him with an evil grin. "They look good together, don't you think?"

"Stop it! You're killing me!" Spirit cried into his hands. Sol chuckled; payback was sweet.

 _ **Seven Years Later: Saturday**_

Ragna was with Sol and his mother at the training grounds. He was wearing a black wool turtleneck shirt and black jeans while Sol and Aria were in their normal clothing. Normally this wasn't too unusual for the family; Ragna and Sol would train together and occasionally spar and Aria would watch to make sure that Sol didn't take things too far (which he had a tendency to do), but today would be different.

"All right Ragna, listen up," Sol began. "In a few days you're going to be taking the Entrance Meister evaluation. You could've taken this last year, but for SOME REASON your mother wanted you to wait a year." Aria rolled her eyes. "That aside, it's only a simple evaluation exam, but I want to make sure you're ready for it." He held his wife's hand as she transformed into her newest from, Sol's _Junkyard Dog Mark II._ "You can't see our souls now, but if you could-"

"I can see them," Ragna said immediately as his eyes started shining slightly, surprising Sol.

"All right then, what do they look like wise guy?" the Meister asked his son. He'd never taught Ragna how to see souls or any other Miester technique for that matter, so he thought that Ragna was bluffing.

"Well your soul's several times larger than you and it's shaped so that it looks like it has your headband on," Ragna said. "Mom's soul isn't as large as yours, but it looks like it has some sort of… helmet on it. And between you guys there are these weird waves going back and forth."

' _That would be Justice's helm,_ ' Sol thought to himself. "Good. This lesson might be easier for you than I thought. Those wave are our souls interacting with one another. You see how there isn't any static or variation? That means that we're one the same wavelength. I can fight without any drawbacks or I'm not losing any energy. You can also partially merge souls in something called _Soul Resonance_ , but that's for later."

Sol then impaled the sword into the ground and it reverted back to the original Fireseal. "Alright, now I want you to grab the hilt and start by holding the sword. It'll burn a little at first, but in it's current state any beginner level Meister should be able to use it."

As Ragna nodded and approached the sword, Sol looked on in anticipation; it'd already been proven time and again that Ragna wasn't your ordinary boy. Sol half expected the sword to get enough of a power boost to transform into another form. He watched his son grab the weapon with his natural arm, not his artificial one. But the moment Ragna made contact with it things went terribly wrong.

A giant storm of lightning tore up the area and was hitting Ragna point blank. Ragna let out a scream of pain as he was shocked to his core for several before being blasted back into a tree and blacking out.

"Ragna!" Aria screamed as she ran to where he lay motionless. "Ragna hold on!" she yelled as she held Ragna in her arms. Luckily for everyone, Ragna's wounds immediately showed signs of starting to heal do to his regeneration.

"Ugh…" Ragna groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. "Was that supposed to happen?"

"Even as a first time I'm hard pressed to say to no," Sol told him darkly. "Head home and rest up, we'll talk more later."

"Hey, don't leave me out of this! It's my problem!" Ragna shouted.

"I'm not leaving you out," Sol promised. "I just gotta find out what the hell's going on first myself. Aria come on."

'But we should take him home first," Aria told her husband. "Ragna could still need treatment for his-"

"Mom I'm fine," Ragna said, a little annoyed his mother was worrying over him for nothing. He stood up with little difficulty. "See? No problem. I'll see you tonight."

Aria didn't like it, but she left with her husband as Ragna walked off himself. He didn't show it, but Ragna was worried. All of his life's work had lead up to becoming a Meister so that he could wipe out witches and no one would have to go through what he'd had to, but it looked like that was in jeopardy.

 _ **Mirror Room**_

"Hmmmmmmm," Death hummed over what Sol had just told him. "The interference was that powerful? I don't think I've ever heard of a case to that extreme and… well needless to say I've been around for quite a long time."

"I figured," Sol said to him. "That reaction, when I was looking at their souls during the backlash, Ragna's soul was creating the feedback just by coming into contact with Aria in her weapon form. His soul even absorbed all of the feedback he created, explaining why Aria didn't feel anything. His soul might not carry any of the properties of a Kishin's, that much we all know, but it doesn't look like it has any chance of wielding weapons."

"And after all of the training you put into making him a Meister," Spirit noted, somewhat disappointed himself. "Do you think it'd make a difference what arm he used?"

"Probably, but not for the better," Sol told them. "Ragna used his regular arm this time, if he used that other arm of his all that could happen is an increase of what we just saw."

"And there's nothing we can do about it?" Aria asked. "Ragna's been looking forward to being a Meister since he was little."

"I suppose he could try training himself to be able alter his soul properly," Death suggested. "Professor Stein's become versatile enough that he can wield any weapon he comes into contact with… but it could take a decade of training if not more and even then it might not be enough. Aria is one of the most adaptable weapons, meaning if Ragna can't wield her properly, I have doubts that he could use any other weapon."

"What if we took off that arm of his?" Spirit suggested. "If it's screwing up with Ragna's soul that much it might be time tried getting rid of that thing."

"Too big of a gamble," Sol argued. "If that thing's been attached to him this long and looks to be the cause of his irregular soul, we tear that thing off now and it could kill him or turn him into something else."

"So are there any other options?" Spirit asked. Sol said nothing.

"I know it's not your first choice," Death began. "But we could always have Ragna work with you. His combat skill are still exemplary, as are his grades thanks to you. Perhaps he could be your assistant, interning for a few years before becoming his own teacher?"

"Well… maybe…" Aria began, thinking to how Ragna would feel. "But wouldn't that-?"

"Lord Death!" Sid yelled as he ran inside. "We've got a problem, a big one."

"Now what?" Sol grumbled.

"Evil souls! They've entered the city!"

 _ **Fifteen Minutes Ago- Death City Outskirt**_

A dark hooded figure sat on her broom handle as it floated over the desert sand as several snakes slithered around her. These things were ten times the size of Anaconda's and their scales were midnight black. These creatures were completely obedient to the woman on the broom, willing to die for her on a moment's notice. The woman then waved her right index finger in a circle while chanting a few arcane words. Once she was finished each snake had an insignia on it's head, one that was a collection of arrows.

"There you go my pets," she spoke with a smooth silky tone. "That little enchantment should be enough to keep you out of the Reaper's sights. Now go, cause havoc, confusion, strife, and should you come across any up and coming Meisters, kill them where they stand."

The snakes hissed as they slithered across the sand, heading into Death City. The woman smiled to herself as her pets began their mission with excitement, despite knowing there would very well be no return. Now if only it was as easy to convince little Crona in these things…"

 _ **Death City**_

Ragna had said he'd head home, but the park had been on his way back so he'd decided to take a quick breather there and clear his head. The park was a great place to do just that, he'd decided to sit on one of the park benches sitting across from the playground where he'd played with Maka several years prior, now filled with kids about the age he had been. They'd continued to be decent friends over the years, though Maka was still in a grade behind Ragna, so they didn't meet up nearly as much. Last time they'd run into each other had actually just been an accident at this pizza joint Ragna enjoyed going to on weekends and that was months ago.

' _Wonder if she's going to pass the test,'_ Ragna thought to himself before shaking his head. ' _What am I saying? Of course she is, she's at the top of her class damn it.'_ Ragna then stared at his arm. ' _This has been giving me nothing but trouble. Why the hell do I even have something like this?'_

"I'm surprised to find you here, even more so that you're not training," Ragna heard a familiar voice say. He turned his head and saw a familiar duo; Ox Ford and his friend Kilik. He hadn't really interacted much with those two either, but at the very least they hadn't given him trouble. "You look shaken, something wrong?"

"Hardly, just clearing my head," Ragna told them passively. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"Just passing through to get to that pizza place," Kilik told Ragna with his arms crossed. "Don't tell me that you're worried about the exam."

"I'm not worried," Ragna told them, though he internally thought he might've already failed. "Just taking a break from training."

"And to think about the past I'd wager," Ox said, adjusting his glasses. "Seems odd of you, are you sure that there's nothing wrong?"

"...Well, if you couldn't become a Meister, what would you do?" Ragna had to ask.

"What would I do?" Ox repeated. "Ragna, it's a simple test of find out how well you can generally connect to weapons there's nothing to worry about. The most that could happen is-"

"SNAKE!" Ragna heard one of the kids on the playground scream.

( _ **Cue No More Heroes**_ _Sling Shot_ )

He craned his neck expecting to see a young boy chasing a girl with a snake on a stick or something not a giant black one that looked like it could easily swallow two of the kids whole. Parents began screaming and grabbed their kids, running with them for death life, the three students were about to take off themselves before Ragna noticed one crying boy on top of the playset, the snake starting to take an interest of him as her mother realized where her son was.

"Shit!" he yelled as he took off towards the playground, barely stopping to pick up a rock and tossed it at the snake's head. His aim proved to be true as it hit it's head. It turned its scaly head to Ragna and hissed with its forked tongue, giving the mother of the child enough time to grab her son from the playset and begin running.

"Now what?" Kilik asked as he and Ox ran up besides Ragna.

"Get these people out of here and grab a Meister, I'll hold this thing back," Ragna told them as the snake's hisses grew in volume, opening it's mouth to reveal giant fangs dripping with yellow venom.

"By yourself? You're crazy!"

"It'll take both of you to get everyone out safely and he's already pissed at me! Just get moving so I don't have to keep this thing busy for too long!"

"He's right," Ox told his friend before turning back to Ragna. "Just don't do anything stupid."

"No promises," he muttered as the two ran off. As soon as they did, the snake bared it's fangs and lunged at Ragna. He leapt upwards to avoid the first attack and landed on the snake's back. He and back to the snake's head and delivered a powerful kick to the back of its head. The snake lurched slightly, but mostly it just bucked Ragna off. Ragna landed on the ground with relative ease and saw as the snake proceeded to slither after Ox and Kilik.

"Get over here!" Ragna yelled as he ran forward and grabbed the snake be the end of it's tail. The snake let out a violent hiss as it lurched forward. While it Ragna was holding the creature back, he saw that contact with his right arm was starting to cause it to burn for some odd reason. The snake then turned its body and lunged at Ragna again. Ragna let go off the tail end before uppercutting its head with his right arm, causing more damage than he had earlier.

"You felt that one, didn't you!?" Ragna shouted as he ran forward to follow up the attack with another. A sudden buzzing sound erupted through his head, loud enough to painfully immobilize him. "Gah!" he screamed and fell to a knee, gripping his forehead as it felt like it was going to split in half. ' _Damn it! Not this again! Not now!'_

' _The power of the Azure Grimoire ain't yours kid. Don't go cozying up to it just cause you've got it on your arm,'_ a blurry figure in the image spoke.

' _Azure Grimoire?'_ Ragna thought to himself before he felt body begin to squeezed and his bones started to crack. Ragna winced and grunted as the snake wrapped itself around his body and continued to crush him.

' _No, No, you got it all wrong! Hitting something real hard isn't the same as focusing!'_ the vision said.

' _Now's really really not the time to be learning about my last life!'_ Ragna screamed internally as his body became more mangled. ' _Damn it, even if I didn't have this huge ass snake to worry about I'm still paralyzed!_ ' The snake then looked down at Ragna with it's fangs dripping venom. ' _Barely into my teens and I'm about to be killed by a snake… Why is this giving me intense Deja Vu?'_

' _Just feel it out, look for the power, the Azure Grimoire will take care of the rest,'_ the vision said once more.

' _Why is this advice so vague?'_ Ragna thought to himself in annoyance. ' _...Alright, I can move now. Focus… Dad taught me that much when I was three…'_

Ragna arm started giving off a large black flame and started and burned the snake intensely. The creature gave a feral shriek as it's bind around Ragna lessened. He gave a roar before smashing his black flame covered arm on the snake and destroyed a large chunk of its body. Shrieking again, the snake retreated from Ragna.

"You're not getting away from me you bastard!" he shouted as he leapt into the into the air, his fist leaving a dark aura behind him as he left. A final image flashed in Ragna's mind, a battle scene making his body experience a technique and showed him who to perform it as he did it. " _ **Hell's-!**_ " he screamed as he rushed through the beast and destroyed another chunk of the monster before landing on the ground in front of it. Ragna then turned and swiped his arm sending forward a massive wave of shadows. " _ **FANG!**_ " The creature screamed as it was slammed by a massive force and its body reacted into a tiny purple floating orb.

(End Theme)

Ragna let out a deep breath as he finally realized it was over. He then looked at the floating orb in front of him. ' _This is a Kishin soul,'_ Ragna thought to himself. ' _So a Weapon's supposed to absorb these things to become a Death Scythe, but the thing that killed the monster was just my arm… Ah, what the hell?'_ Ragna grabbed the soul with his right hand and watched as it was dissolved into it. His arm gave a small pulse of power, which quickly diminished.

"Whoa…" he said simply as he stared at his arm.

"Feeling pretty proud of yourself now?" Ragna heard his father say as he sat from the top of the playground equipment. "Guess you got reason to."

"You were watching me almost die!?" Ragna shouted.

"Actually no; once I ran into the two that you sent to find me I came here first thing. I WAS going to jump in when I saw you getting all constricted, but then the thing with your arm happened, so I decided to let you have your moment… How'd you get trapped by that thing in the first place?"

"I had a vision attack," Ragna told him. "This one was different though, it taught me how to use my arm."

"That's good, but yeesh another vision? That makes five so far."

"Six; I had one about a month ago in that pizza restaurant, but I was able to downplay it."

"So that was why you accidently slammed your face into that deep dish pizza… And here I thought you just preferred the Chicago style thin crust."

"Damn, now I'm hungry," Ragna groaned. "Where's mom anyways?"

"Just finishing up the last of the rounds for these things, it's not looking good that they somehow made it into the city and not even Death was able to sense 'em for a while. There's probably a really strong witch at play. Good news is we're just about finished, and if I have any say about it, looks like you're on your way to the academy."

"Hard to believe I was worried that I wouldn't get into school," Ragna muttered.

"Oh you should've been worried," Sol said with a smirk. "You fail getting in as a Meister and you would've been my new assistant as an intern. Pushing papers for me and doing all the work I don't want to."

"...And I now have a new theme for my nightmares."

 _ **Airspace around Death City**_

The hooded figure sat on her broom handle as she sailed through the air of the desert thinking to herself all the way. Her attack on the city hadn't been meant to destroy it, not by far, but she'd been able to perform a decent test with her magic and perform a little reconnaissance on the _Death Scythes_ at the same time.

' _My spell worked, but it only lasted for fifteen minutes, either that or my pets made it outside of the spell range and my cloaking technique was greatly weakened. I was able to keep constant communication through their eyes, but in the end we didn't kill a single potential Meister. An interesting technique, but not the most practical one. Though that one boy seemed interesting… that power in his arm looks like it could be exploited very easily..'_

She smiled to herself. ' _Perhaps my plans of infiltration will bear more fruit than I've intended. But enough of that for now, it's time I headed back to my lair. Crona should have dinner ready and if he doesn't… well I suppose he's still young enough to spend another dozen hours in the room.'_

 _ **Mirror Room**_

"So we're sure that we got all of the snakes?" Spirit asked everyone in the room. The group consisted of Lord Death who was outside of his mirror, Aria, Sol, himself, and young Ragna who Sol had insisted on coming.

"We better have," Sol grunted. "Some time into the attack whatever was keeping us from spotting them wore off all at once. I don't know about you, but this sounds like a witch's involved and a tough one at that."

"I'd have to say so, I've only seen a spell of this magnitude outdone once before, but that was a fight that I would not want to happen again," Lord Death said before turning to face the youngest in the room. "Regardless it looks like we have some interesting news about young Ragna here."

Everyone turned to face Ragna who said nothing, a little uncomfortable under all of the attention. "Hey."

"So your arm has proven to be able to take out evil creatures AND it can absorb those souls!" Death said, sounding rather pleased in his squeaky voice. "I'd say it seems that you have a powerful weapon on you!"

"So I'm in the academy?" Ragna asked, though he practically knew the answer he wanted to be sure.

"Of course, you've already got your weapon and your first soul, I'd say that seems like proof enough," Death told him. "And from what I can gather it seems that you may have even more abilities to unlock as you grow stronger, perhaps as you gather more souls."

"Lord Death," came Sid's voice. "I've brought them."

When Ragna saw what Sid had brought forward he caught his breath. It was a crimson red jacket along with a large sword. Ragna grunted and gripped his forehead as blurry vision once again started flying through his memory with the same voice as before.

" _I'm giving you this…_ ' ' _...Dark War…' 'He might've been facing the Black Beast itself, but he never gave up fighting as a human being…' '...Called himself…' 'If you can feel that weight, then I have nothing left to teach you.'_

Then the image faded, but not before leaving on last voice, this one was feminine, much cooler and more refined than the other one. ' _Ragna the Bloodedge…'_

"Kid? Hey kid?" Ragna groggily heard his father's voice as he slowly snapped back to reality. "You okay?"

"I'm fine… just another vision," Ragna told him as he his head to remove the strange feeling. "Those are mine then?"

"Seems like it," Sid told him. "After Sol and Aria rescued you from that shark witch all those years ago, I went back to Alcatraz and found these. Seeing as all of the evidence pointed to them being yours we took them back to this city. Seems like the time's right to give them back. There was also a black Hakama and a glove with this… but you can choose when you want those back."

Ragna nodded as he took the coat from Sid and put it on, somehow feeling more comfortable with it on, like he'd been missing an old friend. Unlike his last life when Ragna had it on, he was a good eight inches shorter (he'd gotten an early growth spurt), so now the jacket was slightly more of a trench coat. He adjusted his weapon belt and the sword so that it was position a little above his stomach and set the sword on his back so that it was positioned vertically instead of horizontally.

"So, how do I look?" Ragna asked the others.

"I don't know…" Aria said as she looked thoughtfully at her son. "You look like such a rebel to me…"

"Heh, then it fits," Sol said with a smirk. "Plus we're flying the same colors, something's got to be said for that."

"Didn't think you we're the sentimental type Sol," Spirit said with another of his cocky smiles before his face filled with realization. "So that's what I need!" he shouted before running out the door.

"...Where's he going?" Sid asked the others. Understandably, no one answered (no one knew). "Well at any rate I've got my own things that I need to get done and now I've got some patrols to organize with it. Oh well, that's the kind of man I am."

"Good luck Sid," Aria said as goodbye as Sid left, before turning to Ragna with a smile. "Well seeing as it's still saturday night and our lockdown was lifted an hour ago, you want to do pizza for dinner? We can go to _Slice by the Skull_ again."

"Woo! Pizza!" Ragna shouted, thrusting his arms into the air.

"I'll never understand Death City Marketing," Soul grumbled to himself as he left with his family. "Later Death."

"Peace out!" Death said squeakily, giving a peace sign with both of his hands.

 _ **Later**_

"THIS is his idea of making it up to me after cheating on mom?!" a very pissed Maka said as she looked at the opened box in her hands. Inside the box was a business suit exactly like her father's with a matching tie and everything plus a card saying ' _Best Matching Daddy-Daughter._ ' She grit her teeth before throwing the package to the other side of her room. "What a creep!"

 _ **Author's Note: I don't own the music, BlazBlue, or Soul Eater.**_

 _ **Well that's going to be Ragna's backstory in this world. Raised by Sol Badguy and his wife Aria. If anyone saw that playground scene and thought that I'm shipping Maka and Ragna this story, let me just say that I may or may not do that depending on what happens.**_

 _ **Next chapter I'll be introducing some more main characters. And probably give Ragna both a first day of school and maybe a first mission, you get the idea.**_

 _ **Review Responses:**_

 _ **Dread Grim Reaper: #Update!**_

 _ **Kicklash: 1: I'll move it there, I', just posting it here so that the Soul Eater crowd knows. 2: Blood Scythe is not a live object in this.**_

 _ **Bunny153539: Thanks for catching the error, would've sworn I said western.**_

 _ **EternalCobra34: Well given the fact that Ragna's in more of a partnership with Sol in my other story, I thought I should make one where they're in more of a father son bond. I experimented with the setting and this is what fit. Hopefully this helps with your withdrawal.**_

 _ **Guest: Here's another chapter for you.**_

 _ **Animeandgamerlover2: He'll get a vision of his past life every so often, but other than that I don't know.**_

 _ **Guardian of Light Lightus: Thanks mate.**_

 _ **Guest (2): Here.**_

 _ **Random Fan: I usually go with with the english dub voices, so different voice actors. Sol's already seen Ragna's soul, but I'm pretty sure that corruption of the Azure Grimoire fades with time (that and only very specific weapons can hurt Ragna's soul). The wounds may transcend Phenomena Intervention, but no one said anything about would jumping. But that's just my explanation.**_

 _ **Until next time guys! Ciao!**_


	3. The Reaper's Curriculum

_(_ _ **A/N: Since I have more music than usual on this chapter I decided to try something new. Go onto YouTube and search For 'A Reaper's Soul Chapter 2.' It'll have all of the music in the order it's going to come out. I might start doing it for all of my stories to save time. Other than that, enjoy!)**_

 _Know the Enemy… Predict the Opponent… Reap the Soul..._

 _ **Soul II: The Reaper's Curriculum**_

Ragna groaned as he slumpt forward in the lecture hall. It was the first day of his classes and he'd gone in with determination and resolve to conquer the train regimens and gather all one hundred souls even faster than his old man had. Of course now he had to listen to an initiation speech by Spirit, Maka's dopey father.

After the first half dozen times of having to listen to Spirit breaking off from his notecards to make a cheesy joke or to praise his daughter, Ragna gave up on getting anything useful from the speech and slumped over decided to rest for when the real learning began. Though now that he glanced around, he noticed that several of the students seemed to be listening attentively to the _Death Scythe_ , some with a sense of awe about them. Where that sense came from Ragna couldn't figure out for the life of him… then again, he probably knew the real side of Spirit better than most people.

When Spirit finally finished his speech, Ragna figured he'd handled enough gunk in his ears to last him a life time. Letting out a sigh as he opened his notebook, the new Meister noticed some of the staring he was getting. He overheard the phrases 'trashy coat,' 'looks like a punk,' 'demon arm,' and of course 'freak,' which told him all that he needed to know about how his class saw him and was glad he'd left his sword back at home to avoid making it worse. Normally he'd be going berserk on the people who'd said these thing about him, but he didn't want to pick a fight his first day into the academy. Plus, his mom, Aria, had taught him how to better control his temper when he was little, so he was already prepared for this (Sol teaching him that? Bad Idea.)

"Alright everyone," Sid started as class began. "I know you're all eager to get into the curriculum and start slaying Keshins, but you're new 's see just how much you can know so far. What's the first creed of the Meisters?"

' _Everyone should know that one,'_ Ragna internally thought, waiting for someone to answer. Eventually a student must have raised their hand because he noticed Sid nod towards them.

"A sound soul dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body." Recognizing the voice, Ragna glanced over to see one of the few people he could call his friend, Maka Albarn. She was sitting on the far side of the room, sitting next to a drowsy white haired kid that Ragna could only assume was her weapon partner.

"Correct, you'll hear that phrase used a lot in this curriculum so sure you remember it well," Sid told them. "Now, what's the meaning behind those words?" Noticing Oxford raise his hand, Sid nodded to him.

"It means that we need to keep our bodies fit and minds calmed if we're to maintain proper soul wavelengths. Disrupting those wavelengths could create problems whenever we try to wield weapons."

"That's more of a general view of the subject, but you are indeed correct," Sid told him. "Maintaining wavelengths will be a matter of life and death for students, so you better become used to handling the weapons you use. Now for our last question before I begin teaching; What is our goal at the academy?"

Finally figuring he'd answer something, Ragna casually raised his hand and Sid nodded his way. "To collect 99 evil souls and the soul of a witch and to turn-"

"My weapon into the most awesome _Death Scythe_!"

Ragna grimaced at the sudden interruption, before turning to glare at who'd interrupted him. He saw a shorter boy in a black sleeveless shirt and white shorts with spiky light blue hair and a tattoo of a star on his shoulder, standing triumphantly with a foot on the desk.

"And the Death Scythe made by a big star like me is going to be the best on in history!" the kid said before giving a cocky laugh. Ragna rolled his eyes before the kid was hit in the face by a flung eraser and forcefully knocked back into his chair. The girl beside him wear yellow ninja apparel gave something that, to Ragna, looked like it was between a nervous smile and a grimace.

"That's enough of that," Sid told him, glaring daggers. "Now then, the origins of a Keshin can be traced to their evil actions as a human, which can start from murder and other crimes before evolving to consuming the human souls of those they kill. Human souls can easily be identified as-"

The rest of the class session covered basics of cosmology and basic rules about Kishin hunting. Ragna had already learned when he was little (Sol had a rather odd selection of bedtime stories). Even so, he took notes and paid attention, making sure he didn't overlook anything that'd save his life. Eventually class was dismissed for lunch and the students piled out of the room. Ragna strayed behind for a moment to finish a couple of notes and avoid the rush out of the room.

"Looks like you made it." Looking up, Ragna saw Maka and the boy from earlier he'd assumed had been her weapon. "It's been a while."

"Yeah, it has been," Ragna said as he closed his notebook. "How've you been?"

"Alright," she said, though Ragna could tell that things weren't necessarily okay. He remembered hearing a couple of women gossiping about Spirit and overhearing the word _affair_. Probably not the type of thing Maka wanted to deal with.

"So Maka," the boy behind her began. "This guy your boyfriend?"

' _Boyfriend!?_ ' Ragna thought as his face reddened with a deep blush. Maka's face seemed to heat up as well for a split second before she grabbed her book and struck her partner with it in her usual mood of rage Ragna saw when she was pissed at someone.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND YOU IDIOT!" she shouted as her partner gripped his head in pain. "He's just a friend I've known since childhood!"

"I was just asking!" he shouted back at her before grunting to himself. "And now you're hitting me with books…" He then turned his attention to Ragna who was now standing as he got out of his seat. "Anyways I'm Soul Eater, but just call me Soul."

' _That's going to make things confusing,'_ Ragna thought before noticing that Soul had put his right hand out for a handshake. "Ragna, and sorry but I'm a lefty," Soul shrugged as the two shook their other hands.

"So where's your partner?" Soul asked. "They already run off to lunch without you?"

"I don't have a partner," Ragna said as he rolled up his right sleeve momentarily to show his arm. "I work alone."

"Wait, so it's been a weapon this whole time?" Maka asked and Ragna nodded to answer. "Nice, guess all of those bullies were wrong to pick on you for it."

"I guess," Ragna said as he took his headphones out of his bag. "I'll see you around."

"Don't you want to have lunch with us?" Maka offered, remember Ragna's lone wolf tendencies.

"Can't, I'm meeting up with someone else," Ragna lied, knowing he'd probably have to deal with some of his old bullies. "Later."

"See you," Maka said cheerfully while Soul remained passive. Ragna headed out of the classroom, turned his headphones on, and started his music playlist.

(Cue _**Wonderwall**_ By _Oasis_ and let it change to _**Dani California**_ By _Red Hot Chili Pepper_ )

Ragna headed through the hallways of the academy, passing by several kids who were either complaining about the lessons or looking forward to hunting. Several were boasting that they'd be able to take a Kishin down no problem and that as of the book studying was a waste of time. Ragna didn't pay them any attention as he headed to the courtyard, his normal eating place whenever his mom had taken him to show him the academy and the two had lunch.

"Well look who managed to make it in," Ragna heard a familiar voice say over his music.

Narrowing his eyes, he turned and saw Megan, a girl from his childhood who'd been a leader of the main group that used to bully him. To describe her, she was fairly thin, though her arms showed some muscle depth from the training she'd done to tone them. Her hair was a brilliant shade of violet that went down to her waistline and her ruby eyes seemed to always have this sort of snarky look to them. As usual, she was with her group of friends and was most likely trying to heckle Ragna, despite the fact that he was now almost a foot taller than her.

The red coated meister groaned and tried to turn away, but Megan wasn't done with him. "So how DID you get in here anyways?"

"None of your business," Ragna said gruffly, trying to avoid the girl that had given him a cut lip when he was a kid.

"Probably had to beg you daddy to get in," she said with a laugh, as her group laughed along before she continued in a horrible imitation of Ragna's voice. " _Oh daddy, I can't use a weapon, but I weally want to go to the academy so bad, can you pwease, pwease, pwease get me in?_ " Then in a gruff and even worse imitation of his father's voice: " _Don't worry kiddo, I can do that for you! Everyone is afraid of big, bad me at the academy. I'm sure I can-!_ "

"Is that what you think I sound like?"

Megan froze as her blood went cold and her friend abruptly stopped laughing as they slowly creaked their head to the source of the voice, Professor Sol 'Frederick' Badguy. His glare was menacing, making the students more afraid of someone wearing a lab coat than they ever thought they'd be.

"Beat it," Sol commanded, and they beat it more than a Michael Jackson hit. He then turned his attention to his son. "Some people, huh?"

"Didn't need you to step in, I could've handled it myself," Ragna told him.

"Probably, but that's beside the point," Sol said as he walked beside his son since they were heading the same way. "How's class?"

"Fine, except for the speech I had to get from Spirit," Ragna groaned. "What was your opening speech like?"

"Don't screw this up," Sol told him.

"I figured that'd be the message, but what'd you actually say?"

"That was it," the professor told Ragna, causing him to deadpan. He then came to the hallway he was trying to turn into. "Enjoy the first day, it's going to get harder from here."

"Classes aren't what I'm going to have trouble with, neither is soul hunting," Ragna told him as he headed down a different path from his dad.

' _His problem's going to be fitting in,'_ Sol thought somewhat bitterly, remember is days of seclusion back in college before he met his wife to be. As he continued walking down the hallway he remember something. ' _Damn, I was supposed to give Ragna the message… Eh, he'll find out soon enough anyways._ '

Outside the courtyard, Ragna saw that he wasn't the only one there; there was the blue haired noisy one from earlier and the woman in yellow.

' _I should eat inside,'_ Ragna thought to himself to avoid the annoyance, but it was too little too late. As he saw the kid quickly approaching him.

"Yahoo! You must be the first one here for my autograph!" he said with a determined smile as he thrust a piece of paper into Ragna's hands which read _Black Star_. "Amazing, right? Be sure you keep it in good condition because that's priceless! Not that you'd want to sell it!" He then let out a round of cocky laughter.

"Uh… thanks," Ragna finally said before pocketing the piece of paper as Black Star continued to laugh.

"Sorry about, he gets like this sometimes," the woman in yellow said to him. "My name's Tsubaki."

' _Tsubaki? Weird… I don't know this chick, but that name sure seems familiar…'_ Ragna thought to himself. "Ragna."

"Cool! And you already know who I am!" Black Star said before glancing around. "So… where's your partner?"

"I'm here alone," Ragna told him, the second time he'd had to say that today. Taking a seat he brought out then bento box he'd made for himself last night and began digging in, still listening to his music.

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Tsubaki asked. "Even if you're some sort of prodigy that can hunt without a weapon you should probably have someone to watch your back."

"Yeah, and Tsubaki's going to have to work hard, since I'm such a big star to cover, right Tsubaki?" Black Star said.

"Oh yes, definitely," Tsubaki said, giving a somewhat forced smile of encouragement.

' _More like she's going to be dragged along for the ride,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he continued to chow down.

"Well it should be no problem to you either way!" Black Star told him. "Just let anyone who bothers you know that you've got a friend in Black Star! That should stop them!"

' _This guy and his ego…'_ Ragna thought to himself with a groan before realizing an important detail. "Wait a minute, friend?"

"Yep! It's always nice to have a big friend like me!" Black Star said before laughing in his egotistical manner.

' _THE HELL IS THIS!?'_ Ragna internally shouted before turning and seeing Tsubaki smiling at him in a way that he could only infer as 'please play along.' "Yeah, I-I'll be sure to tell 'em…" Ragna agreed however pained. ' _This is NOT what I had in mind when I promised mom I'd try and make friends!'_

 _ **Later -Death City Streets-**_

(Change to _**Closing Time**_ By _Semisonic_ and _**Summer Breeze**_ By _Seals & Croft_)

Ragna groaned as he made his way back to his house his headphones again playing music. Things had become more and more chaotic as the day had gone on, including Black Star insisting on sitting next to him for the rest of his classes (those seats, of course, were open) and peering over his shoulder as he took notes, making it twice as hard for him to write. Ragna knew that everyone that cared about him always said he should find someone to relate to, but if this was what _Black Star_ was like on a regular basis he'd wanted to find someone else to sit next to during classes.

' _Maybe I can try sitting next to Maka and that Soul guy_ ,' he thought to himself before shaking his head. ' _Nah, then I'd probably drag them down with me, and she's probably got to deal with Spirit already… but what else am I supposed to do?'_

Sighing to himself, Ragna opened the door to his apartment. "I'm home!" he half-heartedly called before hearing a sudden barrage of footsteps coming from further inside the apartment. Caught off guard he didn't have and time to brace himself as he was covered in the shadow of the familiar blue haired girl who was about to pounce him.

"Onii-chan!" the shadow yelled before it crashed into Ragna, causing him to drop all of his supplies and fall on his back to the floor, knocking off his headphones which continued playing music. The Meister groaned as he tried to push the girl off of him.

"Ranga?" Aria called from the kitchen before peering her head out and seeing her two children in a heap on the floor. "Oh no…"

"Dizzy! What the hell!?" Ragna shouted at his little sister. "Every time!?"

"You should have known I was going to do this!" Dizzy said with a beaming smile like it was his fault he'd gotten tackled.

"Well I didn't know that you were going to be back from camp early!" Ragna shouted.

"Really? I thought you I told you to let him know," Aria questioned her husband, who seemed unaffected by the events.

"Forgot to mention it to him," he said bluntly, his nose buried deep in the Rock n' Roll magazine he was reading.

"And you forgot to tell us that he didn't know?" Sol grimaced slightly at the note of disapproval in his wife's voice, before she turned her attention to their children. "Better wash up you two, I have a big meal for both of you!"

"Okay!" Dizzy said with a smile as she hurried to the bathroom. Leaving Ragna to pick his scattered belongings up.

"Next time you need to warn me about something, make sure dad isn't the messenger," he grunted as he walked past the kitchen with a hastily grabbed arm load of his belongings. Sol didn't have a comeback for that, so he simply continued reading his magazine.

Setting his stuff down in his room Ragna let out a sigh before turning to the pictures he kept on the wall. There were four in total, one for each family member plus one more for Maka. The one of him and her was one they'd taken when they'd graduated grade school and had gone out for banana sundays; both of them were smiling at the camera while their faces were covered in ice cream and chocolate syrup. The one with his dad was pretty recent, both of them standing with the biggest smiles (yes, even Sol was smiling) on their faces and each with a black eye after an intense round of sparring. The one with with his mom was of them cooking together when he was ten… oddly enough Ragna seemed to be teaching Aria more than she teaching him.

Then there was the fourth one from when he was nine, pushing his little sister high on the swing set and having her scream with laughter. He allowed himself a smile at the sentimentality. While Aria had been determined to be unable to produce offspring by her doctor, she and Sol eventually… _tried_. She'd given birth to Dizzy not long after Ragna had met Maka, but he'd always had a hard time understanding his sister.

Normally Dizzy was calm, polite, and very soft spoken , but the moment she saw Ragn she became the most hyper thing he'd ever seen… well now that he knew _Black Star_ maybe second most (also she doesn't have wings or a tail like in Guilty Gear). She didn't seem to have any potential for being a Meister or Weapon, but she did have several friends to play with and had even been allowed to go with some of them on a camping trip since school wouldn't start for her for another week.

' _Wonder why the trip ended early_?' Ragna thought to himself before mildly shrugging. Eventually, he took his headphones off and went to wash up for dinner.

(End Music)

Everyone was at the dinner table, enjoying themselves in the meatloaf that Aria had made.

"So Ragna," Aria began. "How'd things go at the Academy?"

"Aside from Spirit's terrible entrance speech, about as well as I would've thought," Ragna said, being a little more passive than he usually was.

"You totally kept to yourself, didn't you?" Dizzy asked, knowing her brother's passive attitude.

"...Not as much as I would've liked," Ragna finally said. Aria was going to say something, but she decided not to push her son towards socializing too hard on his first day so she let him be. "So what about you sis?"

"You should have gone with us!" Dizzy shouted gleefully. "We went fishing, roasted marshmallow, took a hike, went swimming; it was tons of fun!"

"Yet you're back early," Ragna noted before turning to Dizzy with something of a teasing smirk. "So what'd you do wrong?"

"Hey!" Dizzy shouted at her brother, causing Ragna to laugh as their parents rolled their eyes. "I didn't do anything! We were asked to leave for something, I dunno fire hazard or something like that. I don't know what it was, I mean it rained the night before."

Both Aria and Ragna glanced at Sol, who casually nodded as he got up from the table and headed over to the mirror before pausing.

"Hey Ragna, why don't you do it? You'll need the practice." Shrugging, Ragna quickly grabbed one last bite out of his meatloaf before heading over to the mirror and breathing on it, causing it to fog up.

"Let's see… _32-32-564 whenever you wanna knock on Death's door_ ," Ragna said as he wrote the numbers on the mirror causing Death's face to appear. "You there?"

"Yep, yep, yep!" Death answered in his normal squeaky voice. "Oh, Ragna and Sol! Good to see ya! So to what do I owe this unexpected call?"

"It's sort of a hunch really," Ragna admitted. "Dizzy just came back from _Happy Trails_ Campsite and it looks like they pushed a lot of people out of it for no good reason. Something about fire threats after it had rained?"

"Ah, very astute of you!" Death said happily. "We actually just got contacted by them, apparently there's a hunt to be had!"

"I thought so," Sol grunted. "So who are you sending?"

"We haven't decided yet!" Death said merrily.

"...What?" everyone else deadpanned at the same time.

"We just found out a moment before you called," Death said, before appearing to whisper though there was no one there. "Apparently they wanted to clear something up with _negative PR_ with dead families first, so you're literally just calling us right afterwards."

"Seriously?" Sol grunted. "Well that's just great… What about Ragna? Why not send him?"

"Me!?" Ragna shouted. "But I'm still eating!"

"Not a bad idea though," Death admitted tapping his index finger on his mask. "This would make an interesting first catch… well, make that first _intentional_ catch."

"But we can't send him alone!" Aria shouted. "He's still new to hunting!"

"Mom…" Ragna groaned in embarrassment.

"Well…" Death began, tapping the finger on his mask. "Perhaps we could see if our young Maester Maka is ready for action. I mean she's already fairly in tune with her weapon, Soul Eater, perhaps we could send them?"

"What's Spirit going to say about that?" Ragna had to ask nervously. He knew that even if there were rumors about an affair Spirit was always had a crazy amount of pride for his daughter.

"Absolutely nothing if she comes back in one piece! Otherwise we're blaming this on you! Be ready to head out!"

"Now hold on a damn minute!" Ragna shouted, but it was too late as the mirror faded back to normal. "Oh come on..." Ragna groaned with his head slumped over.

"Sounds like you've got a first mission," Aria said with a whimsical smile. "And only on your first day." She also noticed her daughter seemed upset for some reason, but couldn't really place her finger on it. Maybe she just wanted some time to play with her older brother and wasn't getting it.

"Do I have to go?" Ragna groaned.

"Well, I can go for you…" Sol began. "But that leaves you doing dishes… and cleaning the bathrooms… and vacuuming… and-"

"See ya!" Ragna shouted before running into his room, grabbing his jacket and sword, and running off.

 _ **Happy Trails Family Fun Campgrounds**_

' _So this is where Dizzy was spending her vacation,'_ Ragna noted as he entered the campgrounds. He noticed it was a pretty nice campground, warm but not humid, a gift shop, lots of foliage (which might not be the best thing to have right now), plenty of fresh air, and a huge lake.

"Seems pretty quiet," he heard Soul say from beside him. "How the heck are we supposed to find the target?"

"We look," Ragna said bluntly, before noticing that Maka was looking over a couple of papers with something of a glare. "Something wrong?"

"I've got a couple of forms about the campgrounds," Maka told him. "While I don't see any murders happening at the lake before now, there was one incident that happened on the far side of the lake at a kid's camp. Apparently one of the kids drowned in the lake and got the Camp shut down almost overnight."

"Just like that?" Soul asked with his hands in his jacket pockets. "I mean a kid drowning isn't cool at all, but why was it enough to shut the place down that quick?"

"I'm getting there," Maka told them. "Apparently they investigated it and… oh… instead of watching him the counselors were... _making out_ at the time he was drowning."

"Shit…" Ragna acknowledge, noticing Maka's blush. "That's effed up, but at least we know where to start. So the camp's on the other side of the lake?"

"Apparently," Maka said, "We can at least start there and see what happens."

"Should we split up?" Soul offered. "We could cover more ground that way and be done with this sooner."

"Bad idea," Ragna said. "I don't think we're that strong just yet and we seriously have no idea what we're dealing with. I say we stick together."

"And you should probably get into your weapon form Soul," Maka said to him. "I want to be ready for when we fight whatever's out there."

"Fine," Soul said he held hand with Maka before his body glowed and he turned into a black and red scythe.

"Good now let's head out," Ragna told them.

 _ **Unnamed Camp**_

The other campsite was in much worse condition than the previous one, rotting wooden cabins, a broken down pier, and several canoes that were filled with garbage.

"Looks like this place might've seen some usage after all," Ragna noted as he tried to keep his eyes out. "Probably some punks trying to throw a party or something."

"Well we didn't come here to pick up litter," Soul said from his transformed state. "Now that I think about it, the gift shop back at Happy Trails looked like it was unlocked."

"You've got to be kidding me," Maka said as she glared at her Scythe.

"What? I'm not saying we rob it, but maybe we could grab a couple of swimsuits and towels, leave cash, and take a dip in the lake before we go?"

"We didn't come here to swim in a lake on a school night!" Maka shouted at her weapon. "Can you please focus!?"

"...He does kind of have a point," Ragna admitted, though he figured he was now earning the glare Maka was giving him. "What? We've got an entire lake; the whole place to ourselves. When's the next time a chance like this is going to come up? Besides, summer's almost over." ' _Plus I've never been able to enjoy swimming in the Death City pools because of my arm…'_

"Then make a point to come back when we don't have to take care of a job," Maka told them.

"Why do you always gotta be so rule crazy? It's really uncool..." Soul groaned.

"Maybe because I don't want to take our first assignment lightly" Maka explained

"I still think you could ease up a bit Maka," Ragna commented before his arm began painfully throbbing. "What the hell's this!?" he grunted through the pain Immediately the three heard sound of feet rapidly shuffling towards them, prancing through the grass and scraping off the wood."Here it comes!" Ragna shouted as got into a battle ready stance, as did Maka wielding Soul. ' _My arm… it can sense when these things are close by?'_

Ragna kept listening and darting his around, trying to get a feeling for where these things were coming from. He heard shuffling from behind him, then wood snapping a few seconds after that from the opposite direction, then water splashing in yet another direction.

' _This thing's pretty fast,'_ Ragna thought to himself in annoyance. ' _Come on, I've got to focus… there's a trick to this, I know there is… They both come from opposite sides… one right after another… Wait a minute..._

Grabbing two pieces of rotting wood off the ground, Ragna continued to listen for a good moment before tossing a piece wood one direction. He was satisfied when he heard as the wood hit something in the shadows and the grunt of pain that followed.

"It's over there!" Maka shouted before Ragna flung another piece of wood in the opposite direction. Another thud sounded as well as a higher shriek. "Wait, there's two of them?"

"Makes sense," Ragna growled. "Though I thought we'd be dealing with a drowned kid or some shit like that."

"Aw, he found us out!" a masculine voice said as he walked out of the shadow, he was equipped with a giant metal oar and had blood red eyes. He seemed to be wearing a camp t-shirt and cargo shorts and appeared to be in his late teens. The name on the shirt was heavily faded, but Ragna could vaguely make out the word Crystal. "That ruins so much fun!"

"Let's just get on with it," a feminine voice said from other side, wearing and having the same clothes and eyes. She seemed to be armed with… arts and craft supplies? "We can drown in the lake and… move on."

"Hah! That's something to look forward to!" the male one shouted sadisticly.

"So just to confirm..." Soul began from Scythe mode.

"They're probably the camp counselors from when that kid drowned," Ragna said as he stood at the ready. "I'm guessing they enjoyed watching him drown and they're going to do the same with us… probably while making out in front of us before eating our souls.

"Barf city," Maka muttered behind him as she stood ready with her back to Ragna's. He grinned at her description. "I'm already used to fighting with Soul, but what about you? I've never seen you wield that sword or use your arm before now."

"I can fight with both," Ragna assured. "I spent all Sunday figuring out how."

"And that little amount of time was enough?" Maka asked, causing Ragna to grimace.

 _Flashback_

 _Sol: Okay Ragna, we don't have long before you have to start attending classes, so we're going to be sparring with that sword and arm of yours so you can learn 'em quick._

 _Ranga: Okay...but why are you wielding mom as a weapon?_

 _Sol: Because I'm going to be using EVERYTHING._

 _Ragna: Dad… you don't mean…_

 _Sol:_ GEAR RESONANCE XRD MODE: **DRAGON INSTALL**!

 _Ragna:_ _ **ARE YOU TRYING TO FREAKING KILL ME!?**_

 _Aria (Weapon Form): Honey..._

 _Sol (Dragon Install): Ah he'll be fine; he heals quick. NOW LET'S GO!_

 _Ragna:_ _ **WHAT THE HEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLL!?**_

 _To present_ _(Cue_ _ **BlazBlue**_ _Thin Red Line II)_

"...It damn well better be," Ragna finally answered in a dark tone, remembering what the encounter had been like. He noticed the muscles in his opponents tense right before they rushed towards Maka and him.

The one wielding the oar went for Maka and their weapons clashed in a blade look. Meanwhile the woman with the arts and crafts supplies can at Ragna with some sort of short blades. Ragna avoided the initial lunge by backstepping and the slash that was dodged with a simple duck before he spun into a powerful kick and blasted the evil soul through the air before she crashed through the cabins wall.

"That's really all that you've got with those…" Ragna took a look at what the woman was using and laughed. "You're fighting me with SAFETY scissors!? Really!?"

"What happens when you take safety out of the name?" the woman said with a scowl as she got out of the hole before slashing with both of her scissors, making deep and clean cuts in the cabins wood, just to make a point.

"You've still got a terrible weapon!" Ragna shouted before charging forward.

Meanwhile Maka's opponent was tougher to deal with than she'd originally thought, his attacks were fast and vicious and he was allowing any chances for her to counter attack. She had to step back to avoid a horizontal swipe before using the scythe's pole to deflect the stab at her, though now that the target was closer to her she had roll backward to avoid the punch to the face she would've been hit by.

"Give it up brat!" the man shouted. "You can't do anything with that wimpy toy of yours!"

"TOY!?" Soul shouted while he was transformed. "THAT DOES IT MAKA! CUT THAT ASSHOLE TO PIECES!"

"Calm down Soul, he's just trying to get us to pissed," Maka tried to reason, noticing that out of the corner of her eyes she saw Ragna having to dodge the knife sized thumb tacks that his opponent was throwing.

"Pissed!?" the man shouted with a laugh before hefting his metal oar. "I don't want you pissed; I WANT YOUR SOUL!" He then can at Maka while charging a vicious swing which could easily take a person's head off.

"YOU CAN'T HAVE IT!" Maka shouted as she swung Soul with all the force she could, swiftly cutting through the metal oar like a hot knife through butter. The camp counselor stared agape for a split second before Maka screamed as she followed up and swung Soul across his chest, clawing off a large portion and causing him to bleed shadows. ' _Too shallow!'_

"Gah, you bitch!" the evil soul shouted as it leapt back new the lake's beach. "You cut me you little shit!"

"And we got your weapon too," Soul said cockily. "What're you going to do now ya freak?"

Letting out a growl, the man looked beside him, saw the rotting out canoe, and smiled. Using a single arm he slowly hefted the whole over his shoulders with a sneer.

"...You had to antagonize him," Maka groaned.

Meanwhile the Arts and Crafts killer had finally run out of thumbtack to throw, none of which had managed to hit Ragna, as of yet he hadn't even drawn his sword.

"What the hell are you!?" she shouted at him. "You're not even TRYING!"

"Just getting a feel for fighting your kind; until now all of my fights have been against humans and the monster that I call my dad," Ragna said casually with a shrug. "But really, are all of you this weak?"

"I'll show you who's weak!" she shouted before running at Ragna again with her scissors drawn. Ragna avoided the first slash with ease, before he noticed his opponent grab a bag of something red and blasted it at him, resulting in a cloud of red that stung his eyes.

"How do you like that you idiot!?" she shouted before lunging forward with her scissors. "Now I can take my time carving you up and listen to you scream!"

The high clang was emitted, as she stared in horror as her scissors blades shattered right before her eyes, time slowed as she saw that Ragna had broken them with his giant sword, wielding it with a single hand.

' _I didn't even see him draw-!_ ' was her last thought before Ragna performed a second slash and cleaved her in half, turning her into a floating red orb.

"You bastard!" Ragna heard, the male shout while he tried to get the red stuff out of his eyes. He didn't react as the surviving counselor brought the canoe down in a vicious swing, nor did he react to the scythe that cut through the rotted wood with ease.

"Forget about us!?" Soul shouted cockily as Maka rushed forward with a wild swing. As the scythe's blade cut into his side, the murdering camp counselor's face turn into a mix a pain and terror.

"YOUR SOUL IS MINE!" Maka shouted as she finished her swing, finally cleaving the man in half and causing his body to contort into his red soul.

(End theme)

"I guess that's a job well done," Soul said as he transformed into his human form and grabbed the floating orb before looking to where Ragna was standing, his back still turned as he tried to clean his eyes. "You alright?"

"I'm fine, but this stuff stings like hell," Ragna growled before turning to the others. "Did I get it?"

His response was Soul giving off a barrage of laughter and Maka having to fight of laughter as she held her mouth. Feeling genuinely confused, Ragna headed over the lake to see his reflection which revealed:

"GLITTER!?" Ragna shouted once he saw was he was covered in. Indeed, the bag that had been blasted at Ragna had held sparkling red glitter and now the Meister was covered in it, his hair was stained in the stuff. The front of his hair, most of his face, even his lips were covered in the shining red material.

"At least it's your color!" Soul said through his laughter as Ragna tried his damnedest to wipe the stuff off of him. Soul then looked at the orb in his hand. "Always wondered what these things tasted like. Welp, down the hatch."

"You're going to eat it?" Ragna asked as he washed some of the glitter off. "Doesn't it seem weird to you know… actually eat a soul?"

"It's in my name isn't it? That means something right?" Soul Eater said as he held the soul above him before opening his mouth and taking the whole thing. He chewed it a couple of times before swallowing and let out a satisfied sigh. "That was good..."

Ragna looked at his soul before grabbing it with his natural hand. He brought it up to his mouth which he slowly opened before grimacing, grabbing the soul with his right hand, and crushing it in his palm to absorb it and cause his arm to give a strong pulse.

"I'm going to stick with my way," Ragna told him before turning to Maka. "So, time to head back?"

"Well…" Maka began, looking at the lake a little longing. Ragna and Soul held their breath, waiting for Maka's final decision. "I guess we could stand to take look into the lake," she told them. "We should make sure their aren't any Keshins in there."

"Yes!" Soul shouted as he trust his arms into the air. "Cool waters, here we come!"

"What's with the change of heart?" Ragna asked with a wry smile as the three started walking off to the gift shop on the other side of the lake.

"I figured we'd end up regretting it if we didn't enjoy ourselves, at least for a little bit. And I guess for our first mission completed we should celebrate."

"Sounds good to me," Ragna said. "We'll enjoy ourselves this time, but after this we go for nothing but solid soul hunting."

"Well one down, ninety-nine to go," Soul said with a smirk.

"Ninety-eight for me," Ragna told him with a shrug. "This was my second soul, but I get what you're saying; only more work from here."

"Hey, we can take it," Soul told him with a confident smile. "Trust me, soon we'll be at Death's side, ready to wipe out the next Keshin threat's as _Death Scythes_ and a top tier master."

"Sounds good to me," Maka smiled.

' _That brings up a good question though,'_ Ragna thought to himself as he looked at his BlazBlue. ' _This thing's giving me power, but what's really going happen after I get that last soul? Is this thing just going to get stronger and that'll be the end of it? For some reason I doubt it… Guess I should enjoy this while I still can.'_

 _ **Later**_

"And you wanted to miss out on this," Soul said smugly as he floated in the lake water with his Meister partner.

The lake was the perfect temperature, brisk and cool, but not freezing. The two had just gotten out of the gift shop in new swimsuits (after paying of course) and were now enjoying the calm water by the wharf while Ragna changed inside. The was hardly a cloud in the sky leaving everyone to enjoy the stars.

"I'm happy I didn't," Maka said as she floated on her back in the water. "Normally when I go to the pool I have to share it with all of these other people, now I can just float on the water and re-"

"CANNONBALL!" the two heard Ragna shout as he ran along the wharf in his black swim shorts and threw himself in the air and splashed down into the water, sending water all over Soul and interrupting Maka's relaxed float. There was another splash as Ragna emerged from the water with a satisfied smile.

"I WAS FLOATING HERE YOU IDIOT!" Maka shouted at him.

"Aw c'mon," Ragna said, his smile showing no sign of fading. "We're here to enjoy ourselves aren't we?"

"I was enjoying myself until you suddenly came in!" Maka shouted. "What makes you think you can just cannonball into a lake like that!?"

"Yeah, that's completely uncool," Soul called as the two saw that he'd swan to the wharf. For good reasons, Maka didn't like the smile he was giving.

"Don't you dare…"

"THIS IS HOW YOU CANNONBALL!" he shouted as he splashed down, sending yet another of wave out in Maka's face.

"Not bad…" Ragna said with a smirk as Soul again came above water. "Pretty sure I made the bigger splash though."

"You had a running start though," Soul told him with his own smirk right before getting splashed by Maka. "Hey!"

"Can't either of you act at least a little more mature?" she demanded in a tone that caused both boys to gulp swimming over to the wharf and getting up on the ladder she left the lake.

"I guess we pissed her off," Ragna said, feeling guilty. "Maybe we should have left her be."

"It's her fault for not knowing how to have fun," Soul told him. "If she's so uptight all the time how can you expect her to-" The sudden sound of rapid footsteps interrupted him as Maka ran at them over the wharf.

"BANZIIIIIII!" she shouted before throwing herself in the air and making a splash which blasted Ragna and Soul in their faces. "I think that might've been the best one yet," she said with a cocky smile.

"Says you, mine was better," Ragna grunted earning him a splash in the face from Maka. "You realize that this means war?" he questioned before splashing back as Soul joined in on the fun.

From his mirror view in the death room, Death watched the three play in the water, everyone enjoying themselves in the cool air.

"So, whatcha gonna do?" Sol asked from behind, his arms crossed as he watched the students. He'd been watching the mirror with Death for some time now and Spirit was out drinking.

"What do you mean? They haven't broken any rules as far as I'm aware," Death told him with his squeaky voice.

"Just making sure," Sol said. "'Sides, it's not the easiest life to get into. They're just kids, but soon enough these life-death situations are going to be a daily routine for them… and there might be that one job that they don't come back from. They should enjoy things while they have the chance."

"It's a difficult life to be sure, but I think that they'll be able to adapt. They both have amazing potential and Ragna's arm most likely holds many more surprises down the line, certainly an interesting process to watch…"

The lingering thought on Death's sentence didn't escape Sol's notice. "You're worried…"

"As you should be, you remember what Stein said to us when we first found him." It wasn't a question. "He's under your guidance for a reason, you'd do well make sure to notify of anything unusual."

"I know, I remember that much, why do you think I've been training him?" Sol said before cricking his neck. "I better get going, I got a wife and daughter waiting for me at the house."

"Before you do, do you mind making sure Spirit gets home? I don't want him to drink too much before he ends up doing something he'll regret having Maka hear about."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do it, it's a damn pain in the ass to babysit a _Death Scythe_ though," Sol grunted as he headed off, but once he was down the stairs from the platform he paused. "Hey, Skull Face?"

"Mmmmm?" Death asked keeping his gaze on the mirror, though he was clearly ticked at the nickname he'd been called by.

"If I ever have to chose between you and my kid? Well, I won't waste a second before burning that mask to ashes and the rest of you with it." The tension in the room was thick as two of the most powerful beings in this world stood with their backs to each other.

"I'd very much like to see you try… _Flame of Corruption_ ," Death assured, adding Sol's old title for emphasis.

"Heh, funny," Sol said while walking away. He removed his plated headband from his head and stared it, reading the _ROCK YOU_ etched on it. "You think that actually means something to me now." Where the headband had rested on his forehead was… human skin, not a gear sigil or a trace of one anywhere to be found, just skin.

"That man... " Death groaned to himself after Sol had left. "He still antagonizes me to this day. But I suppose a father's love is an understandable cause for hostility… Speaking of which, I should check in on my son to see those cute little stripes on his head!"

 _ **The Next Morning**_ ( **Cue** _ **Carry On Wayward Son**_ By _Kansas_ )

Ragna headed though the hallways of the DWMA the next morning listening to his headphones as he went. As passed along a few groups of third year students he caught bits and pieces of their conversation.

"Did you hear about last night, apparently two first years already slew their first Keshins!" one of them said.

"Already? But they've only been here for a day! Who were they?" a second one demanded.

"Well one of them was Maka Albarn, you know _Death Scythe's_ daughter?"

"No surprise there, she's probably got a thing or two from her mom and dad. Who else?"

"You're not going to believe this, but Ragna, that kid with the weird arm? He managed to bag one too!"

"Him? How the heck could someone like that manage anything? He doesn't even have a weapon partner."

"No clue, but maybe we were wrong about him."

"Well I wouldn't go that far… he's still really weird. And I always get chills whenever I have to look at that arm of his."

Taking this as a form of social progress Ragna headed into the classroom and took a seat where he'd been sitting in yesterday. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax, deciding he'd listen to his music until class started.

"Already here?" he heard Maka ask as he opened his eyes and saw her standing beside him with Soul. "Mind if I sit?"

"Go ahead," Ragna said casually though he was deeply relieved. "Normally I have to sit next to-"

"A BIG STAR LIKE ME!"

Ragna grimaced before he was put in a friendly chokehold from behind by Black Star's arm. How had he gotten behind him without Ragna noticing?

"I've been hearing about you in the hallway all morning!" he said to Ragna. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's looking to become a bigger star!"

"Let go of me!" Ragna shouted as he forced the arm off of him and Tsubaki sighed at her Meisters action. "What are you doing here anyways!?"

"I need to sit next to you, Maka, and Soul don't I? Big star's have to stick with their friends," Black Star said as if it was obvious.

"Hold on… Maka and Soul too? When did this happen!?" Ragna demanded, hoping that Black Star had just kidnapped them here.

"Just a little earlier," Tsubaki explained, with a more pleasant smile. "We overheard them talking about your mission last night and decided to talk to them."

"And a friend of a friend is still a friend in Black Star's book! Oh yeah!" Black Star shouted with a big smile.

"B-B-B-but-" Ragna stuttered as he turned his gaze to Maka and Soul. Maka seemed to be merely smiling happily for new friend while Soul chuckled at Black Star's energy.

"I guess you'll be seeing a lot more of us," Tsubaki said still smiling softly. That was the last straw, Ragna slumped forward hard enough that his head hit the desk with a muffled yet loud _**THUD!**_

"Hey, so Ragna," Black Star began at the downed man. "Do you mind if I share your notes again today? I don't really remember all those little details that we looked at yesterday."

"Errrrrrrrrr"

Hearing Ragna's low and pained groan, Black Star shrugged to the others; Maybe this was just his way of saying YES?

 _ **Author's Note: Never owned Soul Reaper, BlazBlue, or my own Tennis Racquet… Obviously that last one's more of a personal thing.**_

 _ ***Whistles* Damn, it's been a while since I updated this one, I'm just glad that I managed to get it out on time. I've been thinking about when to move this to the crossover section, so I say wait two weeks, then I'll move it.**_

 _ **FYI, definitely don't hate Black Star, I don't really hate any of the Soul Eater characters (even if they're there to be hated, then I think they just do their job well). This is just my portrayal of his early character which was a bit obnoxious.**_

 _ **Another IMPORTANT note, I'm following the Anime on this one instead of the manga 'cause there were a few things the anime did that I REALLY didn't agree with. Also, I did some digging into Soul Eater NOT, and while I might not be listening to everything the series offered as cannon, I may add some characters from that… or maybe not, I dunno. Leave me your thoughts in the reviews as I mull over the possibility.**_

 _ **Speaking of reviews, let's address the ones I got last chapter.**_

 **ShuraYuki0** **:** Thanks, I try to keep people in character.

 **EternalCora34:** Well hopefully your withdrawals will be much easier on you with more frequent updates. Also, let's hope the dub petition goes through.

 **Meijin Lightus, Greyjedi4494, & Guest:** Thanks guys, really.

 **Primus1661:** Maka x Ragna huh? I can see the dynamic, and the fact that both use Scythes, but I don't know what I'll be doing for pairings. When it comes to Soul Eater pairings the only pairing I'm absolute on is SteinxMarie.

 **Shirsaki Kizuro** : Probably not sadly, I don't see it happening.

 **Yoh Narukami** : Blair? ...I mean I guess I could see it, but I'm not sure that Ragna would want to affiliate himself with her, unless I gave her some sort of dark backstory (which would serve more to ruin her character). But I'll consider it.

 **Veemaster** : You again, well thank you so much for reviews and the compliment. Hopefully the least my stories can do is make a few people smile.

 _ **Until I write for you next everyone, Take Care.**_


	4. The Reaper's Someone

Distractions in Keshin hunting only lead to a hunter's downfall… All tasks demand utmost focus… Utmost focus demands an unwavering mind and soul…

 ** _Soul III: The Reaper's Someone_**

Ragna gave a low groan as he slowly rose from his bed and slammed his first down on his beeping alarm clock. It was five in the morning, a long while before anyone would normally have to get up and going for school, but he preferred to get an early start to the morning even on Saturday (in Japan they only have Sundays and holidays off). After getting showered, dressing himself in his usual dark jeans and black turtleneck, and combing his hair so that it was his favored 'messy' style, he headed into the kitchen to get breakfast ready. By the time Sol and Aria had gotten themselves ready, Ragna had already made breakfast burritos for the family and a pot of coffee had just finished brewing.

"Lunches are on the table, thermoses are still in the dishwasher, burritos should still be warm," he said automatically from where he sat at the kitchen table, rereading last night's chapter as he drank his own cup of coffee. "Weather report says it's supposed to rain for the first time in awhile; supposed to last all day even."

"Don't think that gets you out of training, I told you we're stepping it up today and I meant it," his surrogate father told him bluntly, earning him a solid jab in the ribs from his wife's elbow. "...Thanks for getting this ready though, we're supposed to have a meeting in the middle of the day so I thought we'd have to miss lunch."

"Yeah, already heard about it from Maka yesterday," Ragna explained without raising his head from the book he was reading as his parents filled their thermoses with fresh coffee. "See you after school then."

"Be sure you both bring umbrellas," Aria told him as she and her husband exited their apartment with their brown bagged lunches. Ragna let out a yawn before finally looking up and glancing at the time. Classes started at seven for both the academy and regular schools, so he'd need to leave by 6:30 which gave him a solid half hour before he had to head out.

By the time he'd reread the chapter it was already 6:26; four minutes time he needed to head out sighing he stood from the table and placed the textbook back in his bookbag before grabbing his red jacket from the closet. He then brought up three fingers and slowly began to count down. He'd just put down the last finger when a loud crash was heard from the other side of the apartment.

"I overslept!" his younger sister shouted with panic as he heard her rush around her room, trying to get things ready. Rolling his eyes, he crossed his arms as she tried to get ready in the few minutes that they had. "Why didn't you wake me!?"

"Because I remember what happened last time Dizzy; you threatened to gouge my eyes out of their sockets," Ragna reminded as he casually waited by the door as his little sister rushed into the bathroom.

After a few minutes, the blue haired young girl came out hastily dressed with her blue hair a soaked mess with bits of shampoo still in it. Her stomach then let out a large grumble and she cringed. "No breakfast or lunch today."

"Got you covered," Ragna said bluntly before taking two ribbons from the closet and sticking Dizzy's breakfast burrito in the microwave before handing the young girl her brown bag lunch. "Stand still, I'll help with your hair."

"...Thanks," Dizzy thanked glumly, as she looked down to the floor in self disappointment.

"Just keep your head up," her brother told her. Dizzy looked at her sibling in appreciation for the words of encouragement. "It's hard for me to do your hair when it's drooping like that." She sighed sadly again, leaving Ragna to finally get the message as he started braiding her hair.. "Hey, what's the big deal? It's not the first time I've had to do this."

"I know…" she lamented sadly. "It's just… I feel like I'm starting to be just a bother for you…"

"News flash, you're my sister; you'll usually end up being a bother to me," Ragna said smugly, earning him a harsh glare from Dizzy. "Seriously though, I'm the _older_ brother for a reason; if I can't help you out with this much from time to time I'm not doing my job."

"But don't you have your own things to worry about?" she asked as her brother continued to braid her hair. "You've been in the academy for a month now, hasn't it started to get harder for you?"

"As if, I'm bored out of my skull since they're forbidding me from going on another mission without a special notice," Ragna told her just as he finished his work. "There we go, just the way you like 'em."

"Just the way," Dizzy said, trying to keep a confident smile on her face as she grabbed her backpack. "Come on, we should probably hurry."

"Yeah, but grab an umbrella if you don't want your hair to be a washed out mess again," he told her as he grabbed his own parasol and his favored red coat. He decided to leave _BloodScythe_ in the closet since he hadn't touched the blade in weeks.

The weather outside wasn't just a tiny shower, it was a full on storm. Harsh wind blew as the rain came down in gallons. Even with his umbrella and resistant red coat Ragna's clothing was starting to feel uncomfortably damp with the tiny bits of rain that did manage to make it through. Just as the two made their way to the entrance of Dizzy's school, he heard his sister shriek. Turning his head, he say that a powerful gust of wind had managed to tear her umbrella to pieces. Seeing his younger sister without protection from the rain, he held out his own umbrella to protect her from the rain and to offer for her to take it.

"I-I'll be fine," she told him, trying to turn down his offer. "I mean, school's just right here." Ragna didn't move. "I can probably get the school to let me borrow one, I shouldn't have to walk home in the rain… probably." By offering his umbrella, Ragna had sacrificed his own cover from the ongoing storm for Dizzy's and his gravity defying hair was starting to harshly droop from the downpour. Knowing her brother's stubborn nature, Dizzy took the umbrella. "Thanks… I'll find a way to pay you back, I swear!"

"You don't have to, it's fine," Ragna said as he turned to hurry off to the academy, leaving Dizzy to run inside so she wouldn't miss the first bell.

 ** _Inside the DWMA_**

"SHIT I'M LATE!" Ragna shouted as he rushed through the hallways of the academy. Running up the long stairway was a difficult task; the slickness granted to it through the rain was almost guaranteed to make you to make you fall to the ground. It'd nearly happened to Ragna more than a few times, but he'd managed to reclaim his footing. Still, it had slowed him down enough and his shoes squeaked with every step. He finally managed to make it to the entrance of the classroom and opened the door.

"Nice of you to finally join us, you just missed attendance," Sid said with a glare as he turned his head from where he stood at the front desk. "Didn't you have an umbrella?"

"Must have forgotten it," Ragna with a shrug while students laughed at his comment. Water was already pooling at his feet from the rare storm that had occurred. Turning his head towards his usual seat, he saw that it was still open between his regular group. Deciding he wouldn't waste anyone else's time he began heading over.

"Just a minute," the teacher told him, leaving Ragna to groan.

"I'm not getting suspended for showing up tardy for a single day am I?

"You're bringing water into the classroom as well, but I'm not going to punish you for a first offense; I'm not the type of man to do that. Would you happen to know anything about this?" Sid asked him as he held up a letter with Ragna's name written on it. "Found this on the teacher's desk this morning."

"Not a clue," Ragna told him bluntly as he too the letter and looked over it in his hand. _'Whoever sent this writes some pretty flowery cursive… but there's no telling it could be from.'_ Shrugging, he used his finger to open the letter and looked inside. Only a few lines in his face went completely red and his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

"What wrong?" Sid asked trying to snap the student out of his dazed state. "Ragna!"

"I-I'll get on my…" he stuttered he folded the letter, his current complexion showing no signs of dying down at all. He awkwardly headed over and took his seat between Maka and Black Star. He kept the letter in his hand and his head down, trying not reveal anymore of his blush than he already had as the lecture began.

"So to continue with yesterday's lesson, an evil soul's body will change over time after its first we killings. The process will take less time the more souls it acquires and the changes will become further drastic as a result. The less human it looks, the more powers it's likely to have," Sid explained. "Now then, to review… Ragna?"

"LOVE LETTER!? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? I DIDN'T GET A-!"

The entire classroom went eerily silent at Ragna's outburst, as did he as he realized that everyone was staring at him in concern. The Meister in training was clearly rattled as his head slowly creaked around to weakly look at the entirely of the class with their gazes all focused on him.

"We'll… come back to you later…" Sid said as he shook his head. Ragna said nothing, merely slumping his head on top of his desk and letting out a sad sigh.

"He's really out of it…" Tsubaki said next to Black Star with a grimace. For once the light blue haired ninja said nothing, he merely appeared to be deep in thought as he looked to his friend in concern.

Classes the rest of the day seemed to proceed exactly the same; Ragna kept his head down the entire day without any signs of recovering from the shock he'd gotten from the letter. Even when there was a lunch break, he'd only grabbed his lunch and had eaten elsewhere, hidden from even his regular group of friends. At long last the final bell of the day rang, leaving the embarrassed Meister to get up and leave only too soon.

"Hey Ragna," Black Star started as he started walking out the front entrance. "Shouldn't you have an umbrella? You can probably borrow one from the teacher's lounge."

"Wouldn't do me any good," he muttered. "It'll be impossible for me not to get wet in the outskirts."

"You're still going out to the outskirts today in this weather?" Maka asked in concern. "If you go out there now you'll catch hypothermia or get hit by a lightning bolt."

"Like that would kill me," Ragna dismissed entirely. "Besides I could use the rain; damn, nearly anything to cool my head off would be a godsend at this point." Not giving anyone else time to protest, he took off running into the rain soaked courtyard and leapt into the air. Landing on the side of the stairway, he managed to slide all the way down the long stairway and passed several surprised students making their way down with much more care before running off into the city's outskirts.

"Showoff," Soul muttered.

"Jealous," Maka retaliated, resulting in duo having a heated glare at each other. "Come on we still need to do today's shopping."

"Shopping in this kind of weather? Not cool," Soul muttered, though he followed Maka's lead. "Later guys."

"Later," Black Star said casually as weapon and Meister brought out their umbrellas and left the DWMA.

"Black Star?" Tsubaki asked by leaning in. "Is something wrong?" For a long moment the light blue haired ninja said nothing as Maka and Soul Eater made their way out of the academy. Once they were out of earshot a cocky smirk abruptly appeared on his face.

"YAHOO!" Black Star shouted out, causing Tsubaki's face to go completely blank. "All right! Time to get to work!"

 _'Work?'_ Tsubaki thought with concern. _'What's he going on about this time?'_

"Tsubaki, who do you think could have sent Ragna that letter?" the ninja asked, causing Tsubaki to become further worried.

"Uh… I don't know?" she said. _'This is what we're working on? We could have tried to get some more training in or maybe look for a special mission.'_

"Right, 'cause that letter didn't have a name on it, our teacher said that much," he reminded her. "So…"

"So…?" she repeated.

"...WE'LL JUST HAVE TO ASK EVERYONE IN THE SCHOOL!" Black Star shouted before running off in a random direction.

"Black Star! Wait!" Tsubaki shouted as she vainly attempted to keep up with her partner.

"There's a group there!" Black Star shouted in excitement. "Hey! Did any of you leave that love letter for Ragna!?"

"Love letter?" one of the girls questioned before laughing unrestrainedly. "For Ragna!? Are you some sort of idiot!?" The group then headed off laughing at what Black Star suggested.

"Is that a yes or a no!?" he called after them.

"Black Star," Tsubaki began with a sigh as she finally managed to catch up. "Those girls aren't even in our class." Her words had an immediate effect as sweat rapidly dropped down her Meister's face. "In fact they're not even in our year, I think they were fourth year students."

"R-right, guess I forgot about that in my bigness," Black Star admitted. "But still, that doesn't mean they weren't the ones that sent it!"

"They did all walk away laughing…" Tsubaki said as she gave off an iconic anime sweatdrop.

"Well that was one group, let's ask everyone here!" Black Star shouted as he took off running again, this time dragging Tsubaki with him for good measure.

"You're crazy! Why would anyone ever send him a love letter? This was probably just a prank!" one third year student told them off.

"ME? Waste these beautiful charms on THAT!?" a narcissistic second year told them.

"I wouldn't write him a love letter if he were the last man on earth!" a raging first year shouted.

"I'd rather kiss a Keshin than confess to a freak like him!" their final inquiry answered.

"...I'm starting to get the feeling that not a lot of girls in this academy like Ragna," Black Star eventually concluded.

 _'Took him long enough to figure it out,'_ Tsubaki thought to herself. "Black Star…"

"Wait, there's one last person!" Black Star said excitedly. "And they're perfect! They're in our class, I see them around Ragna sometimes, and they don't seem to hate him!"

"Who-?" Tsubaki's words died in her throat as she saw who Black Star was referring to. _'Oh kami no…'_

"SPILL IT! WHY DID YOU SEND RAGNA THAT LOVE LETTER!?" Black Star shouted in his target's face, leaving Tsubaki to cringe… she cringed hard.

"...I beg your pardon?" an understandably confused Ox Ford asked as he adjusted his glasses. "You think I sent Ragna… what now?"

"I KNOW IT HAD TO BE YOU!" the short ninja continued to shout off as Tsubaki vainly attempted to stop her partner. "With all of the time you spend around Ragna you had to confess eventually! But since you couldn't do it in person you had to send a letter!"

"...Black Star," Ox Ford began emotionlessly. "You are a sad, strange little man… and you have my pity." With that said Ox then left the two speechless ninja's, muttering under his breath something about jumping to conclusions.

"You… you didn't really think that he could have been the one to send the letter… did you?" Tsubaki asked him.

"He was the last person here," Black Star tried to defend. "I guess we're not going to figure it out this way… This stinks; I would've thought a big star like me would've gotten this case wrapped up by now."

"We've been investigating for thirty minutes, that's a bit of a short time frame to solve a case," Tsubaki told him. "Shouldn't we call it a day? I mean, why are we doing this is the first place?"

"For Ragna's sake, why else?" Black Star explained. "You saw how he was today, something like this stuck a pretty bad nerve." He then gave a proud hit to his chest with one of his arms. "That's why I'm trying to figure this out! Even if it's just some sick joke from someone we'll at least have a face to blame!"

 _'He's actually doing this for a good cause then,' Tsubaki thought to herself. 'Maybe Black Star's being more mature about this than I thought…'_ "Hey, why don't we try to see if we can read the letter then?"

"Read it?" Black Star questioned skeptically. "I dunno… Wouldn't really be that big of me to peek at a personal letter like that, even if it could've been sent as a mean prank."

"We'll ask Ragna if we can read it first," Tsubaki explained with a thoughtful smile. "That way he'll at least know that we're on the case. And who knows? Maybe we can get an idea of who sent it by what they wrote or how they wrote it."

"Cool! Now we just need to figure out where Ragna went!" Black Star said as a sudden red glow was seen off in the distance, outside the city's limits. The ninja then watch as it was suddenly eclipsed by a burst of darkness before turning red once more.

"Hey…" a nervously sweating Tsubaki asked with fear. "Didn't Ragna say he was heading outside the city?"

"Yahoo! That was easy!" Black Star shouted energetically as he ran for the school's entrance.

 _'He's running straight into that!? Is he mad!?'_ Tsubaki thought with worry. _'What am I saying? Of course he is…'_

 _ **Death City Outskirts**_

As Tsubaki and Black Star made their way towards where they'd assumed Ragna had went, the yellow garbed Ninja became further worried with every flash of red or burst of darkness that she saw off in the horizon. The closer they got the more the ground beneath their feet continued to shake.

"Black Star, why don't we try asking Ragna a different time? It looks like he'd be busy now anyways," Tsubaki said, trying for the umpteenth time to convince he partner that this was a bad idea.

"Why? We're almost there anyways," the young ninja told her as the duo came to a cliff overlooking the display. "See, there he is down below."

Trying to keep her balance in wake of the powerful tremors, Tsubaki glanced over the edge of the cliff and gasped at what she saw. For all the time she'd sat near Ragna at the academy this was her first time seeing him in combat and this hadn't been what she'd been expecting. Ragna was currently shirtless (showing off his artificial arm in full) and engaged in a fist fight with someone that Tsubaki recognized as one of the instructors at the academy. The match between the two could only be described as brutal, neither of the two appeared to be holding back as their attacks often stuck in their opponent's face or ribs, yet the two proceeded to beat the living hell out of each other. Ragna's opponent seemed to charge his fist with flames before throwing a powerful punch forward, forcing the young meister to dodge as not to be seared by the flames. Grunting, Ragna then let out a powerful shout before lunging forward with a fist coated in darkness which the instructor was forced to defend against.

"...So you still want to get in the middle of that?" Tsubaki asked as she turned to Black Star… rather where Black Star had been standing a moment ago. "Black Star?"

"Yahoo!" the young ninja shouted as he soared down from the cliff. "HEY RAAAAGNAAAA!"

"Huh?" the silver hair merely glanced up, surprised to see the teal headed ninja leading down to greet him… only to smashed in the face by a flaming fist courtesy of his sparring part and sent straight into the cliff's side.

"You got distracted," the instructor said bluntly. Ragna forced himself out of the way and painfully landed on the ground. Black Star saw how badly his face was burnt and saw how tightly he was gritting his teeth, but it seemed to be in anger rather than pain and even then it seemed he was angry at himself. "What's with you today? Usually you wouldn't let something like that distract you for a second."

"I'm having an off day alright!?" Ragna snapped back.

"Sure, go ahead and call it that," the tall brown haired man said before glancing to Black Star. "He a friend of yours?"

"Something like that," Ragna said as he slowly worked his way up. He'd barely made it to his feet when Tsubaki landed in between him and his sparring opponent.

"I'm really sorry," she said, bowing apologetically. "He has a tendency to leap before he thinks."

"You don't say," was the blunt response as the man crossed his arms. "Go ahead and take care of whatever it is they want, I'll wait."

Ragna didn't say anything merely nodding his head darkly, his soaked hair partially covering his face thanks to the rain.

"So that's what you arm looks like," Black Star said before giving off a goofy smile startling Ragna. "You always wear that red jacket or a long sleeve shirt so all I've ever seen is the glove."

"Well here it is, in all of its twisted glory," Ragna told him without humor. "Hideous, isn't it?"

"Nah, I think it's pretty cool! Plus, you can fight Keshin's with it, that has to come in handy!" Black Star said, giving him a goofy thumbs up. "Trust me, it's a keeper."

"A keeper, seriously?" Ragna repeated glancing at his arm in a different light than he had before. "...What are you two here for anyways? Most of the time people see fire off on the distance and they take that as a sign to go the other way."

"Not the great Black Star! No danger's too big for me!" the young ninja proclaimed proudly. "But… we were kind of hoping we could see the love letter you got."

"You… you what!?" Ragna questioned with wide eyes.

"Love letter?" the instructor questioned, almost sounding impressed.

"Why the hell do you want it?" Ragna demanded with a scowl.

"Well… we were kind of hoping that if you showed it to us we could find out just who sent it," Black Star told him as he scratched the back of his head guiltily. "We're doing a bit of a private investigation."

"Though it's not at all private," Tsubaki buttered in, causing Ragna to cringe. "In fact I think we directly asked more than half of the girls at the academy." Ragna's cringe deepened painfully. "...And Ox Ford for some reason."

Now the silver haired meister wished that hit he'd taken had ended up killing him. ' _Damn it Ox… I don't think you deserved to be dragged into this nightmare. There goes that trip to arcade I wanted to do with him and Kilik tomorrow.'_ Ragna then looked up and realized the intense look they were giving him. "Well… I mean I could give it to you…" he admitted, blushing harshly even in the downpour. "But I mean… If I gave it to you in this rain it would destroy it."

"Hey, a little rain isn't going to ruin it!" Black Star protested. "Come on, if we can see what it says we'll be that much closer to finding out who sent it!"

"I know that, but-!" Ragna tried to protest.

"Don't you want to know who sent it?" Tsubaki questioned in a much calmer manner.

Ragna racked his brain as he thought to how he could talk Black Star and Tsubaki out of their search. He was so busy he didn't notice what the nearby instructor was doing until he started to feel the heat of his flames, still burning strongly even in the harsh downpour. Knowing part of what was to come, he brought his hands out to shield his face at the wave of pure heat that was blasted and soared into the sky. When the flames died down, steam was completely covering the area. Taking his arms down, he saw the storm clouds were completely gone and the sun was now fully exposed.

"Rain stopped," the instructor said bluntly, leading Ragna to turn and glare. "Just fess up and show it to 'em, can't make things much worse than what they are now."

"...Fine," Ragna heatedly snapped back as he made his way over to his coat.

"D-D-D-D-Did he just burn away the storm?" Tsubaki asked with a blank face.

"Awesome! Let's learn how to do that!" Black Star shouted excitedly.

"That might be a little beyond us right now," the yellow garbed ninja said nervously as Ragna handed her the letter. "This is it?"

"Yeah, not sure what you're going to get out of it except for a red face," he told her with similar bluntness to that of the instructor. Tsubaki didn't know what he meant so she opened the letter and started reading… immediately getting a blush so red it nearly put Ragna's cherished coat to shame. "See what I mean?"

"Huh? Why are you making that face Tsubaki?" Black Star asked before grabbing the note from her. Looking it over himself his face soon mirrored that of his partner. "That's… an interesting way to ask for… a hug…"

"Not sure what you were expecting find," Ragna told them as he took the letter back. "You two going to keep looking? If you do, try not to have something go too far, last thing I need is another headache right now."

"I'll try to keep him in line," Tsubaki partially promised. "But…"

Ragna sighed. "Fine, I won't hold it against you…"

"We'll see you around Ragna! Yahoo!" Black Star shouted before leaping up to the cliff top and running off. Tsubaki bowed politely once more before taking off.

"I got a bad feeling about this…" Ragna muttered with a sigh before placing the letter back in his jacket. "Do me a favor would you and don't tell mom or Dizzy about this alright? If they find out they'll probably just bombard me with questions I can't answer… not to mention what the letter actually says."

"They won't hear it from me, I can promise you that much," Sol assured. "Though I gotta say, if the thing's such a big pain in the ass for you, why bother keeping it? I'm surprised you haven't burned it yet."

"Well…" he hesitated, obviously not comfortable about talking about such things even with his father. "Even if it's embarrassing and crude as all hell it kind of gives off a good feeling… You know? This is a first time I've had even the hint of girl liking me and even if it's probably a joke, for at least a second I could believe that someone cared about me…" Ragna scratched the back of his head. "Sounds kind of stupid I guess."

Sol smirked. "More like completely idiotic."

Ragna lowered his head as a dark cloud of despair seemed to form around him. _'Some father.'_

"FYI, you better start shaping up soon or else I'm not going to give you a passing grade," Sol said as he cracked his knuckles.

"Passing grade? On what?" Ragna asked as he did the same.

"Finally managed to get through to Skull Face; said he'd give you your own special mission if I told him you could take it. No offense, but right now it doesn't seems like you're even close." Sol then grinned harshly as fire encompassed both of his arms. "Want to try and change my mind?"

"Bring it pops!" Ragna accepted with his own smirk as he charged his own power. Flames of black and red collided once more, causing the area to rumble once more.

 _ **Black Star's House**_

'Why can't he ever be this focused when it comes to homework?'' Tsubaki thought to herself as Black Star sat at the table and tried to think over what he could've sent in the letter. 'Come up with anything?"

"My brain's so big it's hard to keep my thoughts together," Black Star told her. "But… I can come up with two girls that could have sent the letter."

 _'He's narrowed it down to two? That was quick. Maybe I don't Black Star enough credit for-'_

"First choice is Maka." That alone was enough to kill the thoughts of praise in Tsubaki's head. "She was never there when we were questioning the other girls, so she hasn't said no."

"There's no chance Maka could have sent that! She and Ragna don't act close to being in that kind of a relationship!" Tsubaki shouted.

"Yeah, but let's say it's just an act and she really wants something else, that could be it right?" the young ninja explained. "Plus, out of anyone she's known him the longest and is even friends with him. It'd almost be strange if she wasn't the sender."

"That's still a pretty big leap in logic." _'Then again if it's Black Star, he wouldn't have it any other way.'_ "Those were some pretty raunchy things to say in a letter, I can't imagine Maka sending something like that to anyone… and I don't her chest is half as big as the letter implies."

"Maybe she's just a got an active imagination," Black Star guessed. Tsubaki was pretty doubtful of that. "Option two is… you."

"EXCUSE YOU!?" Tsubaki shouted with a deep blush.

"Oh yeah! You thought you could pull a fast one on your own partner, but nothing escapes Black Star's great eyes!" the young ninja shouted as Tsubaki mood seemed to darken considerably. "I've seen those little glances that you've been giving him during class. Didn't think I wouldn't notice? I've managed to pick up one everything and-!"

 ** _THUNK!_**

 ** _"AAAUUUUGGH!"_**

It was rare of Tsubaki to lose her patience with anyone, even her partner. Thing was, when that did eventually happen Black Star got a shuriken to the forehead. The blue haired ninja gave an angry shout of pain before falling to the floor, blood still dribbling out of the wound.

"Care to continue?" Tsubaki asked angrily as she crossed her arms.

"I spoke too soon…" Black Star admitted before painfully yanking the shuriken out of his brow. "But that still leaves Maka… Hmmmm…"

 _'What's he thinking now?'_ Tsubaki questioned herself as an idea seemed to form in Black Star's mind.

"Maybe we could get them on a date," he said with a big smile, confusing Tsubaki.

 _ **The Next Morning -Maka's Apartment-**_

"You want Maka to go out with Ragna?" Soul Eater asked with confusion as he sat with Black Star and Tsubaki in his appartment. Maka was currently out saying that she'd wanted to hit the library and pick up some new material to read. "What brought this up?"

"Black Star is convinced that she's the one that sent him the letter from yesterday," Tsubaki explained with a groan. "I doubt it, but he seems dead set on it."

"I'm against it too personally," Soul told the two. "A while back I actually asked Maka if Ragna was her boyfriend and she smacked me over the head… what makes you think she was lying?"

"Call it a hunch, but that's not the only part of my plan," Black Star told him happily. "So let's say that Maka wasn't the one that sent Ragna the letter, but we still get her to go out with him… Well what if Ragna's actual crush notices him with Maka?"

"I get it…" Soul said as he gave a snarky smile. "That'll put the pressure on her to confess to Ragna in person and she'll reveal herself to us… Okay, so what do we need to do?"

"You're in on this too now?" Tsubaki demanded, trying desperately to be a voice of reason.

"Who knows, maybe if she goes on a date she won't be half as uptight with me," the weapon suggested. "Plus, out of all they guys at the academy it's obvious that Ragna's the closest she's ever gotten with anyone. So about the plan…"

"Easy, with my knowledge about the city I know about this cafe that couples from the academy often meet up at," Black Star told him proudly. "I already made a reservation for two in Ragna's name, now all we need to do is get them to show up their today at 5."

"I know the place you're talking about; pass by there all the time. You guys get Ragna then, I'll figure out a way to get Maka there," Soul promised them with a smirk.

 ** _Later the Badguy Residence_**

"I'm back," Ragna announced as he entered through the door, this time he was wise enough to dodge to the side when Dizzy tried to pounce him, leaving his younger sibling to land on all fours behind him. "Nice try sis…"

"You're back earlier than I thought you'd be; it's not even two," his mother said from the kitchen as she looked over some last minute paperwork for the academy. "How was the arcade?"

"Lame, didn't make sense to stay for long with those games glitching out on us," Ragna told her. "At least Ox seems to have forgotten about the chaos from yesterday…"

"Chaos?" Dizzy asked, reminding her brother that he needed to keep that on the down low.

"None of your business," he said sharply. "I'm gonna catch some Z's; this week's been hell on me."

"Before you do, this came for you," Aria told him as she got up from the table and held out a letter. Ragna's eyes widened as he recognized the way his name was written on the front. "I never got a good look on who left it, but maybe you know something about it?"

"Nothing really…" Ragna said as he tried to grab the letter with a passive blush. Unfortunately for him it didn't look like his mother was willing to give it to him easily. "What now?"

"What's this about? As charming as my son is I didn't think he'd be getting a love letter this early in the academy," she said to him with a smirk.

"...Well he did," Ragna finally admitted with due bluntness, surprising Aria long enough for him to grab the letter out of her hands.

"O-Onii-chan got someone to confess?" Dizzy demanded. Before she could question him further Ragna was already in his room with the door shut behind him. "Ragna!" Dizzy called from outside her brother's room. "Ragna!"

"Quit it!" he shouted from inside. "I just want some privacy! Jeeze... what a family." He took a good long look at the letter in his hand. He was about to tear the letter in half to avoid all of this chaos, but he couldn't bring himself to. Opening it he saw the details of the message inside.

 _'Doesn't look like they're trying to make this note really perverted at least,'_ he thought as he continued to read. ' _And they want to meet me? In person? Let's see C'est la vie Cafe and Coffee… That's that place I always see couples from school going to.'_

Ragna sighed to himself as he put the letter down and laid back on his bed. ' _Tch… This sounds too good to be true… This could just be a cop out to embarrass me… Even if it is a girl, what happens if she turns out to be the type that only wants to try and take advantage of a guy like me?'_ He sighed to himself and tried to get comfortable. _'It's not worth it… Not in the slightest.'_

 _TimeSkip -Two Hours Later-_

"Ragna! Give it a rest in there!" Sol shouted angrily as he pounded on the bathroom door. "I can already smell that damn cologne from my den!"

 _ **Meanwhile -Maka's Apartment-**_

 _'This oughta be a cinch,'_ Soul Eater tried to convince himself as he looked at the letter he'd written. ' _All I gotta do is give this letter to Maka and let her read it. It'll tell her everything that she needs to know.'_

The young meister herself was sitting on the couch in their living room, reading over the books she'd just gotten from the library. A small cup of tea sitting in front of her as she delved into the complicated Shakespearean writings of Julius Caesar. She didn't even look up as Soul approached her.

"Hey, 'got a letter here for ya," he told her, holding out the piece of paper for her to take. Maka glanced at the letter in her partner's hand before staring back at him with a harsh glare. "Hey, I don't have any idea who it's from alright? Jeeze." Rolling her eyes, she took the letter and opened it looking it over for a good long while. "So… what's it say?"

Maka didn't answer for a long moment as she looked over the letter in her hands again and again. Finally she let out a long sigh. "It's a love letter, and a pretty poorly written one…" she said, irking Soul somewhat. "It's a note trying to tell me that there's someone who cares about me and finds my 'cute form' attractive." Maka then ripped the letter right then and there, causing Soul to harshly cringe. "What a total joke."

Soul was sweating harshly as he tried to salvage the situation. "Was that it?" he asked, trying to keep the cool he always claimed to have. "I mean, did the joker have anything else to write?"

Maka stared at Soul, she seemed to narrow her eyes rather tightly. "Yeah, he did…" Right now it was taking everything the weapon had not to confess to the crime right then and there. "He also wanted to meet me at this cafe that, _C'est La Vie_ or something. Heard of it?"

"We pass by it on our way to the academy," Soul told her. _'Come on there has to be something that could get Maka to go there at least.'_ And then it hit him; use her anger flares. "You know, it might be worth heading there, even if it's just to tell the guy off."

"...It's not worth it," Maka said as she went back to reading her Shakespeare "It's just one stupid letter."

"It's just one stupid letter now, who knows how many more are gonna be showin' up?" Soul defended. "At least you know where your sender is going to be so you can tell him off, can't say that Ragna had that much… Come to think of it, there a chance this could be the same sender?"

Maka didn't say anything at that she simply closed her book and stood up. The young meister then groaned while she performed a small stretch before smirking. "Guess I should get ready then."

 _ **Later**_

"Dammit, just how sad can I get anyways?" Ragna said glumly to himself as he headed though the streets of Death City. "There's no damn way this can be an actual date… Yet here I am, walking to a cafe and taking the better part of an afternoon jazzing up for it…"

While he wouldn't say that you couldn't recognize him, Ragna had undergone a bit of a change from his time spent in the bathroom. He'd done the basic preparations such as shower and put deodorant on (he didn't have any facial hair to shave), but gelling his hair proved to be a trickier task than anticipated. No matter what he'd tried his hair would constantly go back to its usual messy style. In the end he'd given up, settling on the slight shine that he'd gotten thanks to the products he'd tried to use. Instead of wearing his red coat, he'd put on a clean dress shirt and some freshly ironed slack, just put the whole image together. And then there was his father's cologne; it'd had taken a few tries, but he'd finally applied enough to smell nice without suffocating anyone.

"Looks like this is the place," he muttered as he took a look at the cafe. The restaurant was plenty busy, couple from both the academy and adults from around town were sitting at tables making small talk and laughing at each others jokes. Taking a small sniff in the air, Ragna could tell that the adults were already breaking into the booze for the evening.

"Can I help you sir?" a waitress at the front asked. "Need to wait for a table or do you have a reservation?"

"Reser… I might, are there any at Five o'clock for two?" he asked, not sure if anything had been set up.

"Let me see…" the waitress said as she looked at the guest list. "Yep, reservation for Ragna. Ready to be seated."

 _'It's finally here, the big moment of truth,'_ Ragna thought nervously to himself as tried not to sweat off his cologne. "That's me."

"Great, right this way sir," she said as she lead the way towards Ranga's table. It was a small table outside the restaurant surrounded by flora… and it was completely unoccupied. "Oops, looks like your date isn't here yet."

 _'Shit,'_ Ragna thought as he glanced around confirming his worst fear from the smirk he heard. _'Most of these punks are from the academy, same bastards I was always fighting on the playground… Is this a trap?'_

Against his better judgement he took a seat and decided he'd at least give it a minute, he'd been sure to show up a little early anyways. He asked the waitress if she could bring him some water and she said she'd be sure to bring out a pitcher. Now all that was left were the punks around him. "Fess up," he demanded with narrow eyes, immediately stopping all conversation in the immediate area. "Is this a set up? Some twisted way to kill an afternoon?"

"Heh, like we'd need to do that in the first place," said one third year. He and Ragna had a history; he'd gotten his arm broken by the young silver hair long ago and held a bitter grudge ever since. "You'll embarrass yourself, with or without us."

"...Whatever," Ragna said as crossed his arms and waited, not knowing that Black Star was spying on him from afar.

"Stage one complete, we've got Ragna here," Black Star said as he and Tsubaki were looking over the cafe from a nearby rooftop. "Now all we need to do is wait for Maka and the rest is up to them."

"I'm still not sure this is a good idea," Tsubaki said. "Doesn't it sound like we're forcing them to get together?"

"Getting together is up to them, just as long as people think that they were together, we can find out who really sent that letter and knock some sense into them. As a big friend of Ragna's we'll settle this once and for all!"

"Yes definitely," Tsubaki falsely agreed. "I hope Maka gets here soon though, a lot of people down there look like they want to give him a really hard time."

"Don't worry; Maka has never showed up a day late for class, she'll be here soon," Black Star said proudly.

 _Five minutes later_

"Uh… Black Star?"

"Just give her a second, any moment now."

 _Ten minutes later_

"Black Star…"

"She probably just spend a lot of time getting ready. She'll be here in a minute."

 _Fifteen minutes later_

"She… she wouldn't stand Ragna up would she?" Now the young blue haired ninja was starting to lose his nerve.

"It's a bad time to start asking," Tsubaki told him as she watched Ragna. He'd already gone through his second pitcher of water and had ordered a small appetizer which had already gone cold… to make matter worse, the bullies from the academy hadn't left and were enjoying every second of this. Tsubaki shook her head before she caught something out of the corner of her eye. "Oh no…"

"What? What is it?" Black Star demanded as his weapon left from the roof. "Hey Tsubaki!" Almost immediately she returned... carrying the beaten form of Soul Eater. "Soul? Wh-where's Maka?"

"She… she's not coming…" Soul said, barely able to breath. "I… I screwed up…"

"YOU WHAT!?"

 ** _Earlier_**

"Guess I should get ready then," Maka had said when she was about to get ready.

' _It's not perfect, but we can use this,'_ Soul thought to himself. _'She'll show up angry, but at least she'll be there. Better than leaving Ragna stranded, that wouldn't be cool… Wait…'_ "I thought you were going to get ready," he said as his smiling partner headed into the kitchen.

"I just thought I should make us a quick snack before I headed out," she told him as she headed inside.

"Grab something at the restaurant, it's the least they can do after bumming you this much," Soul told her as he rolled his eyes. "Come on, I don't even feel that hungry."

"Oh come on now, how do you like your brains?"

"I like 'em… wait, brains?" Soul asked, just before he was slammed in the back of the head and knocked off of his feet. Groaning, he turned and saw Maka standing over him angrily, holding a frying pan in her hands.

"How do you like them Soul? Sunny side? Poached? ...Scrambled?' she demanded as she took a threatening step forward.

"M-maka... Hold on a second…" Sol begged nervously as he scurried back.

"I don't know what's more insulting; that you'd try to pull a stupid stunt on me like this… OR the fact that I wouldn't recognize your OWN HANDWRITING."

 _'Oh… shit…'_ "I-I can explain!"

Maka only brought the frying pan up as she prepared to strike. "I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!"

 _ **Present**_

"And that's what happened…" Soul told them glumly. "In the end she doesn't even know that she's leaving Ragna here by his lonesome… Also I'm gonna have to crash with with you guys tonight, I don't think she'd going to let me back until she calms down."

"That's the least of our troubles!" Black Star shouted at him. "Ragna's down there waiting for someone and there's a group of students down there bad mouthing him!"

"What do want me to do? We can't go back to Maka! She'll skin us alive!" Soul groaned. "We'll just have to fess up… damn I feel like crap."

"Yeah, I know it's my style but this blunder is way TOO big," Black Star said as he shook his head.

Down below, Ragna took the last bite of last appetizer, already cold and tasted even worse thanks to his attitude. He shook his head. "I'm a damn idiot…"

"You don't need to tell us," one of the antagonizing students said as their group as a whole rose from their tables. "Much fun as it was to see you totally ditched I think we've got better things to do on our day off… though I wouldn't mind seeing you like this again."

"...Just go," Ragna said emotionlessly.

"Not just yet," a sadistic female student said as she took her camera out. "I want everyone to know what really happened here… Let's get a picture and post it everywhere in school tomorrow. C'mon, _smile_ for us."

 ** _"You…"_** The students took a step back in fear. Ragna's voice wasn't his own, it was too dark, too bloodthirsty, too… evil. A pitch black aura had surrounded him and the entire area was struck by harsh, chaotic winds.

"Sorry I'm late, I got caught up." Words couldn't explain Ragna's reaction as Tsubaki took the seat at the table directly across from him. Immediately the dark aura around him disappeared, replaced only with confusion.

 ** _(Cue 'The Letter that Never Came' by Thomas Newman)_**

"Tsu...Tsubaki…?" Ragna could barely say

"You didn't order yet did you? I've never been here, but I've heard they serve pretty good burnt cream," she said to him, leaving the other students completely bewildered.

"Wh-what do you think you're doing!?" the student with the camera shouted. "You're eating with _him_!? Are you ins-!?" Words died there as her camera was suddenly impaled by a sharp kunai. Aside from Ragna thanks to Sol's training, no one had seen her move.

"I'm sorry, I thought you all said you had plans," Tsubaki said to them with a bright smile. The older students were unnerved to no end, so they simply left to cut their losses. "Some people." Tsubaki then poured herself a glass from the pitcher of water as the youth across from her finally came to his sense.

"What the hell are you doing?" Ragna demanded, getting a blank reaction from Tsubaki. "You couldn't have sent that letter. You and Black Star needed me to give it to you! ...This doesn't make any sense."

"And you're right; I just sent you the _second_ one," she told him happily. It wasn't a lie. Tsubaki herself had mimicked the handwriting when she'd written the second letter to Ragna herself.

"Why?" he had to ask, his voice so weak he could barely hear himself. "Why the hell did you do that?"

Tsubaki then gave him a soft smile. "Isn't it obvious? It's because this was eating you alive. And..." she started with a soft blush as Ragna's eyes grew wide. "It's because… It's because we're friends…"

…

...

"Heh, yeah... we're friends," Ragna said with a comfortable smirk as he crossed his arms. "But if I'm just your friend…."

"You're still paying," Tsubaki told him wryly.

"Really? What the hell is that?" Ragna asked, the smirk still on his face as Tsubaki merely giggled. "Seriously though, I got through the trouble of dressing up and you're wearing what you normally do?"

"That's your problem, I never said this was going to be formal," Tsubaki told as she looked through the menu. "You want my advice?" Ragna gave her a simple shrug. "Wear the red coat and skip the cologne; it fits your style better."

"Wish I'd known that earlier before I spent a whole afternoon getting ready," Ragna admitted and his ninja date laughed. "Seriously though, did you see the face of those jerks? That was priceless."

As the two began making proper small talk, high above them Black Star and Soul Eater watched them thoughtfully, both of them having small smiles form.

"We should still let him know," Black Star suggested. "It's still kinda our fault things went this way."

"Yeah, but let's give it some time at least. I never thought Tsubaki would do this for us… or for him." Soul shook his head. "But I guess that still leaves the question on who sent him that letter in the first place."

"Eh, we should let it go," Black Star waved off. "Ragna's almost a big a star as me now! There's no way he'll let something this tiny weigh him down!"

"...Damn straight," Soul said with a smirk.

Unbeknownst to anyone though, there was another set of eyes watching the two; a very… peculiar set of eyes.

 _ **"...Meow."**_

 _ **Author's Note: Don't own anything.**_

 _ **Anyone surprised? Well I guess I am too, this idea just sort of came to me as I typed. Anyways, that's the more slice of life (SOL… huh). Just a couple of things to say.**_

 _ **First, to anyone who likes anime and wants to watch both Funimation's and Crunchyroll's work I highly suggest VRV. It costs about ten bucks a month, but you get a free month long premium trial. Without premium you might be subject to commercials, but I'd say it's worth it. I don't advertise for things like this normally, but this is something I highly recommend.**_

 _ **I actually used it to get some Soul Eater ideas and to keep up with my updating shows like Dragon Ball Super and Berserk. I even just finished binging a show called Future Diary… not for the faint of heart, it's more of an adult show.**_

 _ **See you all next chapter everyone, over the next horizon.**_

 _ **Storm VII signing off. Ciao.**_


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